Alpha Universe: Field Trip
by VibeQuake
Summary: Perry, Pinky, Peter, and Terry are sent on a training retreat to COWCA, the Canadian Organisation Without a Cool Acronym, but things start going wrong. Can the four dodge death and avoid agony to solve the mystery? Contains OCs and romance. All characters you do not recognise are mine but all characters you do recognise are not mine. I do not own any songs that appear. Slight AU
1. Arrival

Perry blamed Pinky. Pinky blamed Peter. Peter blamed Perry. Terry wasn't blamed by and didn't blame anyone because he was too sensible.

It all started the day Major Monogram sent the four animals to COWCA, the Canadian Organisation Without a Cool Acronym, for a month long training retreat. Because Canada was so far away, the four agents had to leave their host families, which already meant that Perry was cranky before they had even boarded the minibus.

The second reason Perry was cranky? They had to take a minibus.

None of the other agents cared. Terry was listening to music and reading a book, while Pinky and Peter had a discussion about their nemeses. Perry hadn't brought anything to do, so on the long ride to Canada, he just laid back in his seat and made snarky comments under his breath whenever Pinky or Peter said something that he thought stupid or weird.

Carl was the one driving the minibus, and he seemed to be able to tell that Perry wasn't happy, because on their first rest stop about two and a half hours into their trip, he went into the service station and bought several magazines for Perry to look at. Perry hated magazines but he appreciated the effort Carl had made, and besides it was better than doing nothing. He decided to amuse himself by looking at the pictures of the cars, models, and random adverts and doodling on them with a pen stolen from Major Monogram's office when the superior officer had been telling them about the trip.

"Well, guys," said Carl eventually, pulling the bus over. "Here we are."

Perry leapt out of his seat as if it had just stung him and dived for the door of the minibus. Carl, who only just managed to open the minibus's doors before the desperate platypus crashed into them, chuckled. "Calm down, Agent P or you'll-"

CRASH!

Carl winced. "-trip," he finished.

Perry lay at the bottom of the step into the minibus. It didn't really hurt him, but he could feel his friends' eyes on him. His pride damaged slightly, he got to his feet and surveyed the building. It looked almost exactly like OWCA's headquarters, complete with a sign saying _COWCA Secret Headquarters (pay no attention to this sign)._ Perry snorted. Seemed like the leader of COWCA had the same stupid idea as Major Monogram.

Carl walked past him. "Hold on, Agent P. Lemme get the stuff from the bus, and then you can go in and register.

The other three agents gathered their stuff from the minibus, each chatting about the month to come. Perry was just watching two fox agents chase each other across the lawn when someone leapt on his back. He yelped and shook himself. "Come on, Perry!" said Pinky excitedly, hugging Perry around his neck. "Cheer up! Have you ever been to Canada before?"

"Yes," Perry lied grumpily.

"Well, have you ever been _here_ before? To COWCA headquarters?"

Perry sighed. He could say yes, but his best friend would know that he was lying. "No," he admitted.

"Then I'm sure you'll have a good time," Pinky said optimistically.

"Hey, P!" called a female voice. "Over here!"

Perry turned to see a familiar brown-haired girl come across the lawn towards him. She looked exactly the same as when he had last seen her—clothes and all—except for a red scar down her cheek. She knelt down next to the platypus.

"Hey, Lyla," said Perry. He had to admit—if only to himself—that it was nice to see her again.

"You can talk now?" asked Lyla Lolliberry, looking and sounding only mildly surprised. "That's awesome, P. Wanna sit with me at lunch and catch up?"

To his surprise, Perry realised that that sounded quite good. "Thanks, Ly. That would be great."

Lyla beamed, and then looked over Perry's head. "So who are your friends?"

"These are-" Perry turned round, intending to finish that sentence with "my best friends" but ended up finishing it with "the biggest morons on Earth," when he saw that Terry had managed to get himself stuck in the minibus's door, with Pinky pulling on his hand from outside the minibus and Peter tapping on the glass door from inside the minibus. Perry pinched the bridge of his nose. This was going to be a very long month.


	2. A Midnight Conversation

Perry lay awake in his bed, annoyed. He was annoyed that he had received the worst bed in the room. Pinky and Peter had "bagsied" the bunk bed—the _ferris wheel_ bunk bed—and Terry had claimed the softest bed which also happened to be nearest both the bathroom and the window. Perry's bed was nearest the radiator. Perry thought to himself that at least he was warm.

"Hey, guys?" Pinky's voice piped up. "I know we've only been here a couple of hours, but what are you missing the most about being back home?"

"Definitely not Cassie's singing," was Peter's prompt reply, making everyone except Perry laugh.

"You gotta admit that for a cat, she's pretty good," Terry said fairly. "I suppose I miss my host's cooking. I mean, it is actually ridiculous how good her cooking is. You guys should come over for tea sometime. I mean, she knows about my double life. She'd be glad to have you."

"I'm not one to turn down an offer of free food," said Peter, again making everybody except Perry laugh. "So what do you miss most, Pinky?"

"Isabella," Pinky answered immediately. "I love her to bits. She's ambitious but she deeply cares about me. When I disappeared to help Perry defeat his nemesis one time, she went frantic with worry."

"Frantic?" repeated Peter. "How frantic?"

"She got Perry's owners to build a complex machine to locate me," Pinky grinned. "Even after they told her that Perry disappeared exactly like that all the time and he always came back in the end."

Terry whistled. "That's one dedicated owner you have there. I doubt Baljeet would even notice if I was gone that long."

"I'm sure he would," Pinky said. "But then again, I don't know him. So Peter, what do you miss most?"

"I dunno," Peter mused. "There's lots of things. My food bowl, my bed, my nemesis, my host family, my-"

"Did you just say you miss your nemesis?" Terry asked, rolling over in his bed to look up at the panda in the top bunk. "Why?"

Peter shrugged. "Professor Mystery's a good guy underneath everything."

"The dude's name is pretentious," Terry said rather bluntly.

"So what? We've gone out to dinner before."

"Don't you have a mate?" Pinky teased.

"It's okay to go out with your nemesis every now and then," Peter defended himself. "It's like going out with your friends. Don't you guys ever go out with _your_ nemeses?"

"Dude, Rodney has tried to kill me during ninety-nine out of a hundred of his past schemes," Terry said. "And that one time he didn't try was because he was sick and couldn't even build a machine. I've got cracks in my shell because of that guy. Given just one wish, I'm almost a hundred percent sure he would use it to destroy me."

"Pinky?"

"Uh, no," said Pinky. "Poofenplotz is so vain, the conversation would always be about her. Also, she's actually insane. I can barely even stand her for an hour or two during her schemes. I wouldn't be able to stand her for a whole evening."

"What about Perry?" asked Peter. "Do you think he's ever gone to a movie or something with his nemesis?"

"Pete, even you know Perry is practically best friends with his nemesis," Pinky answered. "And I don't blame him. Now _Heinz Doofenshmirtz_ is a nice guy underneath everything."

Perry felt like jumping out of bed and listing everything wrong with Heinz. But he kept silent, listening to their conversation.

"I battled him once," Peter recalled. "It was quite different from Andrew, that's for sure."

"Andrew?" repeated Pinky, but Terry had already worked it out.

"Professor Mystery's first name is _Andrew?"_

"His real name's Andrew Butterworth, actually."

Terry let out a quiet laugh. "No wonder he chose to go with Professor Mystery!"

"I'm more concerned about how you know that," Pinky said, hanging his body out of the bed so that he could look up at the panda's black and white head.

"It doesn't matter," Peter said, glad it was dark so that nobody could see how flushed he was. "He talks a hell of a lot less than Doof."

"I battled him once too," Pinky said. "I was with Perry, but seriously the guy could not stop talking. It was both annoying and funny. His puns were quite cringe-worthy. I don't know why he couldn't just be quiet."

 _It's because he felt he had to fill the void,_ Perry thought to himself. _Back when none of us could talk. And as for Doof and I being "best friends"…that's not right. We're more like family._ But he didn't any of that aloud.

"I've never even met the guy," Terry said casually. "I've seen him a couple of times at various events but I don't think he's seen me."

"I think an orange tortoise would really freak him out," Peter joked.

Perry heard a light smacking sound and Peter's voice yelp, "Hey!"

"Could you throw that pillow back?" Terry called quietly. Perry could almost hear the grin in his voice. "I need it."

"Then you shouldn't have thrown it at me!" Peter said shrilly.

"Then you shouldn't have called me a tortoise!" Terry said, matching Peter's tone exactly. "I'm a turtle and you know it!"

"Guys, shut up," Pinky said. "I think Perry's asleep. We don't want to wake him."

"Speak for yourself," Terry said, lazily rolling over. "We should probably get to sleep anyway. We have orientation first thing."

"How do you think they're going to wake up everybody on campus at once?" asked Peter.

"Maybe not everybody needs to get up at the same time as us," Pinky said wisely.

"Could you lot be quiet?" Terry yawned. "Some of us are trying to sleep."

"Oh come on," Peter said. "Literally twenty seconds ago, you were chatting along with us."

There was a silence at this. Perry assumed his best friends had finally drifted off. He rolled onto his back and prepared to properly go to sleep. He could feel himself dropping off a few times, but then homesickness would always strike and keep him awake. He tossed and turned in his bed constantly, trying to find a comfortable position. Eventually, he resorted to moving his pillows to the other side of the bed and sleeping like that.

Soon after this, there was a yelp from Terry. "Peter!" he snapped.

"What?" came Peter's innocent voice.

"I thought we were going to sleep!"

"Oh for crying out loud!" Pinky sounded irritated. "Peter, what did you do?"

"He threw the pillow at me!"

"You said you needed it," Peter said innocently.

"Like half an hour ago!"

"Please, just go to sleep," Pinky said tiredly, rolling over to face the wall.

This time, everybody did. Even Perry.


	3. Breakfast

BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP

"Waaaa!" yelped Peter, getting a fright. This fright made him roll a foot to his left. Unfortunately, that ended with him falling off the top bunk. Pinky looked down at him and grinned. "Whatcha doin'?" he asked.

"Shut up," Peter grumbled as he got to his feet.

Terry had practically launched himself off the bed when the alarm first went off. Now Peter and Pinky looked up and found the orange turtle clutching onto the lamp shade. "You need your pillow?" Peter called up to him, a grin on his face.

"Oh, shut up!" Terry snapped. The angry look on his face became suddenly replaced with anxiety. "Guys, I can't get down."

"Phineas, shut that alarm off," Perry muttered sleepily. He fully opened his eyes, rolled over, and again found himself face to face with a weird scene; Terry clutching the lamp shade; Pinky angled underneath him with his arms out as if to catch him; and Peter going to each of the beds and throwing pillows up at the orange turtle.

"I'm surrounded by morons," Perry said under his breath, before rolling out of bed and padding underneath the light, casually ducking to avoid a flying pillow, towards the bathroom.

After waking himself up with a splash of water to the face, Perry walked back into the main room and found Pinky and Peter now playing tug-of-war with the blanket from Terry's bed while the turtle himself had managed to get down from the light and was trying to get the blanket back so that he could make his bed.

Perry put two fingers in his mouth and gave a sharp whistle. Everyone froze.

"May I remind everyone that breakfast is in an hour," he said. "We have enough time for two of us to use the shower. The other two can use the shower in the evenings. If we don't want to miss breakfast, I suggest you hurry up. I also suggest that Pinky and Peter should be the two to shower this morning, as you both need to calm down a little bit."

A little embarrassed, the two animal agents traipsed into the bathroom. Terry approached Perry and put his paw on the other agent's shoulder. "It was great how you managed the situation like that," he said. "I respect you for that."

Perry nodded, accepting the praise from the older and more experienced agent. Terry retrieved his blanket and began making his bed, while Perry brought out his suitcase from under the bed and brought out a photo of Phineas and Ferb. He missed them a lot when he was away from them. He didn't know how he was going to manage this homesickness.

"Have you seen my fedora?" asked Terry.

Without looking, Perry picked it up from the floor and tossed it like a Frisbee across the room to Terry, who caught it. "Thanks."

A few moments later, Perry heard, "Oh wait, this is Peter's. Ah, here mine is. It was in my suitcase."

There was a pause. Perry sat down on his bed, placed his picture aside, and addressed Terry: "So, you think Professor Mystery's name is pretentious?"

Perry delighted in seeing Terry visibly pale and slowly turn to face him. "H-how much of last night did you hear?"

"Every single word," Perry confirmed.

"Prove it."

"Professor Mystery's real name is Andrew Butterworth."

"Touché."

…

Perry and his friends entered the massive dining hall. The walls were round, and there were about three dozen rectangular tables with benches alongside. A lot of animals of various species were already sat at the tables in groups of various numbers.

Perry and the others got into line. After they had been served fried eggs and toast, they looked for somewhere to sit, clutching their trays. It looked like every table already had a group sat at it.

"I don't see anywhere to sit," Pinky said. "Do you guys?"

"Hey, P!" someone called.

Perry turned to his right to see Lyla and two other human agents sat alone at a nearby table. "Come sit with us," Lyla called, beckoning.

Perry pointed over his shoulder with his thumb at his friends.

"Sure, them too."

Perry lead his friends over to Lyla's table. "Morning, P," Lyla said as the four animals sat down. "Nice day for training, huh?" She didn't give Perry a chance to answer. "So who're your friends?"

Perry introduced his best friends to Lyla, who nodded to them and said, "Nice to meet you," in turn.

"Time for you to meet _my_ friends," Lyla said, gesturing. "This is Edie Ellershaw and Reuben Roddenstein."

The other girl at the table smiled, buttering a piece of toast. She was wearing black shorts, a black tube top, and black boots. Her blonde hair was short around her shoulders, and she had a scar similar to Lyla's down her left bicep. Her face looked red and marred by injuries.

The boy waved, holding a fork. He had short, red hair that painfully reminded Perry of Phineas's. He was wearing black trousers, a white polo shirt, and a black jacket. Like Lyla and Edie, he also had a scar, this time on his forehead. Again like Lyla and Edie, he had signs of recent injury: a fresh bruise on his neck, and a cut over his eye.

While Perry had been observing this, Terry had been working something out. "Wait, Roddenstein? Are you related to Aloyse Roddenstein?" he asked Reuben.

"You know his full name," Pinky said with a grin. "So show off for us."

"Fine. Are you by any chance related to Aloyse Everheart Elizabeth Otto Wolfgang Hypatia Gunther Galen Gary Cooper von Roddenstein?"

Reuben laughed and clapped. "I've never heard anyone say my dad's full name aloud before," he said in an accent that was definitely not American or Canadian.

"You're English," Perry noted.

Reuben nodded. "I was born in England. I moved to America when I was fourteen."

"So how old are you now?" Terry asked.

 _He's actually interested in this guy's life,_ Perry thought.

"Same as Lyla," Reuben answered, taking a bite of his toast.

Perry enjoyed the frustrated look on Terry's face. "That doesn't really help. How old is Lyla? And don't you dare say "same as me"," he added as Reuben opened his mouth to speak.

Perry and Lyla exchanged amused glances over the table. "I'm twenty-four," Lyla said. "And he and Edie are too."

"So you're my dad's nemesis," Reuben said to Terry, who nodded.

"I would think he'd describe me as his enemy," the turtle replied. "In the worst possible terms."

"Yeah, probably," laughed Reuben.

"Wait, doesn't Rodney have another son?" asked Pinky.

The smile disappeared from Reuben's face. "Yeah. Perfect little Orville's my older brother. Dad prefers him to me. I think it was because of this that I didn't follow the path of evil, as Orville did. I joined COWCA because, well…I wanted to stop people like my dad."

"What about you, Edie?" asked Pinky. "Why did _you_ join COWCA?"

Edie swallowed a bite of toast. "My parents were messed up," she said, also in an English accent. "My mum was a raging schizophrenic. Dad was the leader of a group of murderers. He used to bring me along on jobs. Eventually, we moved from England to Canada, to escape the police, and he kept on killing here. When I was fifteen, a young trainee called Lyla Lolliberry found me in the literal hole in the ground in which I had hidden when I found out that my dad had just single-handedly killed twenty people."

"That's bad," Pinky said sympathetically.

"I watched as Lyla and a group of COWCA agents busted into my dad's hideout and apprehend him. Lyla offered me a chance to get out of this life, so I took it." Edie glanced gratefully at Lyla. "I will always be grateful for the opportunity."

"Eh, it's no problem," Lyla said with a wink. "I could tell you had true potential."

Edie smiled and reached for her fork. As she did, Perry saw her visibly wince at the pain from the scar down her arm. "Did something bad happen recently?" Perry asked.

Lyla looked uneasy. "Why do you ask, P?"

Perry looked around the room. Almost all the agents showed signs of recent injury. Lyla must have seen Perry's sweep of the room because she sighed. "Yeah, two days before you came, there was a…uh…an incident involving some of the sparring robots and a dozen or so chainsaws."

Pinky, Peter, and Terry all grimaced.

"Ouch," commented Perry.

"Yeah," Edie agreed. "It was just fortunate that nobody lost any limbs. Or died."

A sharp whistle sounded throughout the room. The hum of conversation stopped as people began taking their trays back to the serving hatch.

"Well, time for orientation," Perry said as their table began to pack up. "This'll be fun."


	4. Old Love & New Love

"That was educational," Perry remarked sarcastically as he and his friends left the amphitheatre.

"It really sucked that Captain Colophon couldn't come in person," said Pinky sadly.

"Or even send someone to do orientation for him," Perry grumbled. "Seriously, there's gotta be some kind of intern working here, like Carl, that Colophon could have sent, instead of just giving us these crumby pamphlets."

"At least we _have_ pamphlets," Terry said optimistically. "Come on, it could have been worse. They could have left us waiting for hours or not give us any information at all."

"Plus, these'll give us good information," Pinky added.

They each opened the pamphlet and read.

 _WELCOME to COWCA's training retreat. We hope you enjoy your month with us!_

 _Following is a schedule of your day, which will be in place for all days except Sundays, which you will have off._

 _6:00: alarm_

 _7:00-7:45: breakfast_

 _8:00-10:00: first activity_

 _10:00-12:00: second activity_

 _12:00-13:00: lunch break_

 _13:00-15:00: third activity_

 _15:00-17:00: fourth activity_

 _17:00-19:00: supper_

 _21:00: curfew_

 _22:00: lights out_

"What kind of curfew are they imposing on us?" asked Perry.

"I've heard of this curfew," Pinky answered, looking up from his pamphlet. "From nine o' clock, you're not allowed anyone of the opposite gender in your room."

"We're allowed to have girls in our room?"

Perry ignored Peter and continued reading.

 _All agents have Sundays off. This is time that can be spent anywhere on the lot, although special permission must be asked for time spent in the pool and gym. During the day, there will be various leisurely activities, such as Capture the Flag, run by our senior agents. In the evening, there will be a special event._

 _1_ _st_ _Sunday: disco_

 _2_ _nd_ _Sunday: movie night (there will be a poll during the week to find out which movie agents would like to be shown)_

 _3_ _rd_ _Sunday: carnival visit_

 _4_ _th_ _Sunday: awards evening_

"Awards evening?" Perry repeated. "What kind of awards?"

"It'll be for stuff that happened during the retreat," Pinky answered. "Like _highest score in archery_ or _fastest 100 metre sprint_."

"Don't you think it's a bit annoying that he knows all this and we don't?" Peter whispered to Perry while Pinky was talking.

Perry shrugged. "Actually, it's kinda useful," he whispered back.

He raised his pamphlet and continued reading.

 _There will be four groups for activities: Group A, Group B, Group C, and Group D. The groups are listed overleaf._

Perry read the groups list. He was in Group D (ironically—because of Doofenshmirtz), but the worst part was that his friends were in a different group to him: Pinky and Peter were in Group A, and Terry was in Group B.

"Guys, they're splitting us up!" Peter had obviously just read the same bit as Perry.

"Well, you and I are together," Pinky said to Peter.

He shrugged. "Yeah, but I'd rather we were all together."

All of a sudden, a purple platypus came running up to the group. "Excuse me, are you Peter the Panda?" she asked.

Peter raised his paw. "Yeah, I'm Peter the Panda."

"There's a call for you in reception."

"Who is it from?" Peter asked.

"I don't know but he mentioned the name "Patty"."

Peter paled. "What is it?" asked Pinky. "Who's Patty?"

"My pregnant mate." Peter began running in the direction that the purple platypus pointed.

The platypus turned round and smiled at Perry, who couldn't stop staring at her. She was beautiful to him; even though he hadn't seen any other platypuses, he knew a beautiful female platypus when he knew one.

"Maybe the baby's coming," she suggested. "I hope everything's okay, though."

She turned to Perry and seemed to catch him staring. He quickly covered it up by saying, "H-hi. I'm Perry."

The female platypus smiled and held out her hand. "I'm Principessa."

Perry stared.

"But my friends call me Priya," she added.

Perry managed to smile. "Nice to meet you. I'm Perry."

She giggled. "You've already said that."

Perry was mortified. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I just…I'm a little bit flustered. I've never met a female platypus before, let alone one who looks as beautiful as you."

Priya blushed.

"Typical," Pinky muttered to Terry. "He just told a girl his name twice, basically told her that his skills of talking to girls are bad by admitting he's never met a female platypus before, and yet he still manages to render her speechless."

"He's Agent Perry the Platypus," was Terry's answer. "What do you expect?"

"Well, I see you've just been to orientation," Priya said to Perry, indicating his pamphlet.

"Are you here for the retreat?" Perry asked her.

"Oh, yes. I couldn't make it to orientation myself, but I did get a pamphlet."

"So did we all," Terry muttered.

"So what group are you in?" Perry asked.

"Group D," was Priya's reply.

"Me too!"

Perry was relieved. At least there would be one person he knew in his group.

Priya also looked relieved. "Oh, that's great. I mean, we can get to know each other, right?"

"That would be great," Perry smiled. "Really great."

At that moment, Peter returned, breathing heavily. "Patty gave birth!" he panted. "We got a girl…named her Kimi."

"You're a father!" beamed Pinky.

"Congratulations, Pete," Terry said warmly, slapping Peter on the back.

Priya stood off to the side, smiling broadly. Perry joined her. "I had a feeling that was what the phone call was about," she confessed. "The guy on the phone said he was Patty's father. I thought the only reason his mate's father would call and not his mate herself was because…well, you know."

Perry looked sideways at Priya. The female platypus was vacantly watching Peter, Pinky, and Terry celebrate, half a smile on her face. "You have a mate?" he asked casually.

"Nah. You?"

Perry shook his head. "Never crossed my mind before. Two years ago, my agenda was extremely simple: wake up, get mission, defeat nemesis, "oh there you are Perry"."

""Oh there you are Perry"?" Priya repeated.

"It happened a lot, believe me. I just never focused on having a mate. Besides, I think I said earlier that you're the first female platypus I've known."

"Not many other platypuses in OWCA, huh?"

"No," Perry replied with a grin. "A lot of domestic pets and wild animals…but not many platypuses. I used to know a male platypus called Reggie."

"Reggie the Platypus?" Priya laughed.

"Yeah, he really broke the alliteration theme." Perry laughed too. "He was a riot at parties. Or so I heard."

"You never went to any OWCA parties, did you?"

Perry managed a smile. "Nah. You know, for years I used to convince myself that it was because I didn't like parties. But recently…I don't know…I think it's because nobody's asked me to one." He paused, and then added, "Or even told me when they're happening. I think it's a conspiracy. "Keep Perry away from parties". I swear, it's a conspiracy."

Priya was laughing hard. "You're really funny," she said.

"Everyone else describes me as cranky and sullen," Perry said.

Priya stopped laughing as she realised that Perry was now being serious. "Aw, come on. I've only known you ten minutes, tops, but I can tell there's more to you than that."

Perry smiled at her. "Thanks."

"Hey, Perry!" called Pinky. He beckoned. "We're gonna go to the pool. Wanna come?"

"Sure," Perry called back. He turned to Priya. "Do you want to come too?"

Priya smiled. "That would be nice, Perry. Thanks."

"Oh wait, don't we need written permission?"

Priya nodded. "Yeah, but I pulled some strings with Captain Colophon before the retreat began. I have an unlimited card, and I'm sure the poolside guy will let me bring a few friends."

"That's great, Priya. Thanks!"

Priya went off to tell the rest of the group. Perry smiled after her. He couldn't help feeling that this retreat might have been a good thing after all.


	5. Fire

"Hey, Terry! I'll race you!"

From where he was standing at the top of the pool, Peter immediately leapt into the water, closely followed by Terry.

"Oh for crying out loud…" Perry, who was standing by the side of the pool, shook his head with amusement. "Pete should know better than to challenge a semi-aquatic mammal."

"I can't help feeling that there's a story behind that," Priya laughed.

Perry looked at her. "Actually…yeah. There is."

"Tell it to me," Priya said eagerly.

As Perry told her the story, Pinky raced to the other end of the pool to meet Peter. Terry was already out of the water, sitting on the side, and swinging his legs. The panda was panting as he reached the end. "We've told you before," Pinky said, grinning, to the exhausted panda. "Never challenge either of the semi-aquatic mammals to a swimming race because you will lose miserably."

"I know," Peter panted. "But that was fun."

"I mean, seriously. Out of the three other agents you could race, why not choose me?" Pinky asked. "I can't swim very well, so you'd win."

"Eh," Peter said nonchalantly.

"Hey, guys?" Terry was staring in the direction of Perry and Priya. "Looks like Perry's got himself a girlfriend."

Pinky grinned as he also looked. "Good for him," he said. "This is our first day, and already he's got a love interest."

"Doesn't it make you feel a bit jealous?" Terry asked.

"Nah," Peter said, casually wringing out his ears. "I have a mate."

Terry kicked a bit of water in his face. "I know. That's why I wasn't talking to you, non-semi-aquatic mammal."

Peter splashed Terry back. "I don't see you climbing trees as well as me. That's something."

"Stop it," Pinky said firmly. "We're here to relax."

At that moment, a human lifeguard blew a whistle. The sound made everyone stop talking and listen. "For anyone who wants it, the water slide is now open."

Peter and Terry looked at each other. Grinning, Pinky counted down on his fingers. _5, 4, 3, 2, 1._

On 1, he pointed at the two animals. At the exact same moment, Peter and Terry leapt up, simultaneously shouted, "DIBS!" and ran for the slide. Pinky grinned. When it came to fun, Terry was just as much of a child as Peter.

On the other side of the pool, Priya was laughing hard at Perry's story. The teal platypus was also laughing at the memory. "How on Earth did Peter manage to get himself stuck in a hollow log?" Priya spluttered.

"Well, we _were_ racing in a river," Perry replied, chuckling. "I don't think he was expecting me to zoom past him. I suppose he lost his sense of direction."

All of a sudden, a piercing alarm began wailing, giving pretty much everyone in the vicinity a fright. "What is that?" Perry screeched over the alarm.

"The fire alarm," Priya yelled back. "They always test it on the first day. It'll stop in a minute."

But a minute went by and the alarm still didn't stop. Perry and Priya glanced at each other worriedly. "Could it be a real fire?" Perry yelled.

Priya didn't answer, but the look on her face coupled with the smell of smoke that was seeping through the open door told Perry the answer to his question.

The building began to shake.

"Move! Everyone out!"

The lifeguard began to evacuate agents from the pool. Perry caught sight of Terry and Peter running through the open door. He looked around for Pinky and caught sight of the Chihuahua just as he fell into the deep end of the pool. "Pinky!" Perry cried.

He did a run up and dived into the pool. Priya called his name but he ignored her. He swam underwater and saw Pinky floundering under the water. The poor Chihuahua couldn't even stand up in the shallow end, let alone the deep end. Perry kicked his legs and tail and pulled his arms as fast as he could. He found himself hurtling down the pool. He grabbed Pinky and propelled himself out of the water. Not sparing any time to check that his friend was okay, Perry ran towards the door. Priya met him on the other side of the pool and the two platypuses dived out into the open.

Terry and Peter met them. Peter was the first to catch sight of Pinky, who was still lying in Perry's arms. "Pinky!"

The Chihuahua was shaking more violently than usual. Perry couldn't tell whether that was because of fright or cold. "Are you alright?"

Pinky managed a nod.

"Keep calm, everyone!" the lifeguard was calling. "We don't have a roll call list just yet, so it's imperative that you check if any of your friends are missing."

Perry silently assessed his group. Peter, Terry, Pinky, Priya. They were all here.

"Is anyone missing?" the lifeguard called.

There was a chorus of worried "no"s from the agents who had been in the pool.

A loud shattering noise sounded, making everyone wince and a few agents scream. "Look!" shouted a male cat, pointing.

Everyone followed his gaze to the top floor of the COWCA building. Smoke and the tips of flames were pouring out of the windows, making the sky above look dark grey.

"Oh my God," Pinky muttered.


	6. A Quiet Reflection

The only thing on anybody's mind for the rest of the day was the fire. It was reported that nobody had died or been serious injured, but the event had shaken everybody.

At lunchtime, Colonel Colophon's intern, a human called Gwen, had told the assembled agents that activities would go on as planned the next day. This was the topic of discussion in Perry's room.

After supper, everybody had been sent back to their rooms. However, the curfew had not been lifted, so Priya was able to stay in Perry's room for a while. She was sitting on the end of Perry's bed, while Perry himself lounged on top of the covers. Terry was lying in his own bed, and Pinky and Peter were sitting on the floor, trying to play a game of cards that neither of them were really interested in.

"Why would CC allow the activities to still happen tomorrow?" asked Peter. "Surely it would be better to cancel them?"

"I suppose it's because the fire only affected the library," Priya said.

"The library?" repeated Pinky, who still hadn't quite gotten over his fright in the pool. "Why would they have a library on the top floor?"

Priya shrugged. "I think it's for agents to relax in and read books in their leisure time."

"Yeah but why the top floor?" Pinky asked again.

Priya shrugged. "I guess it's because it's somewhere peaceful with a nice view of the countryside."

"So why would the culprit set fire to a library?" Pinky pressed.

"I really don't know, Pinky!"

"Sorry…" Pinky sighed. "It's just that…a lot of agents went through some bad stuff today. I just want to know what's going on."

"We all do," Terry said, but Perry noticed that the turtle was giving the Chihuahua a sympathetic look.

Priya sighed. "I wish there was something we could do, instead of sitting here, waiting for curfew to finish."

As if on cue, the soft chimes playing over the speaker signified the end of curfew. Priya smiled and got up off Perry's bed. "Well, it was nice hanging with you."

"You too," chorused Terry, Pinky, and Peter.

Priya turned to Perry, who had followed her to the door, and said, "I'll see you tomorrow for activities, Perry."

"What about breakfast?" asked Perry. "Where did you sit this morning?"

"I sat with my roommates," Priya answered. "Only because I had no-one else to sit with. They're a bit annoying."

"Do you want to sit with us tomorrow?" Perry asked.

Priya beamed. "That would be great, Perry. Thanks."

And she left.

Perry looked at his roommates, who all grinned back at him. Perry rolled his eyes. "You're all immature."

Perry went back to his bed and lay down, facing away from his friends. Eventually, they went on to a different conversation. Perry didn't pay attention. The homesickness was back, only this time, less severe. He missed Phineas and Ferb, obviously, but he felt happier to be here. It was probably Priya.


	7. Rock Climbing part 1 of 2

Breakfast the next day was more hushed than before. Many agents were discussing what had happened yesterday but a lot of the talk about the incident had already been flushed out of them yesterday during lunch and supper.

Perry was just eating a second piece of toast when the same intern from yesterday, Gwen, stepped onto the stage at the edge of the room. "If I may have your attention," she said into the microphone.

The buzz of conversation stopped as everyone paid attention. There was still the odd sound of someone crunching a piece of toast, though.

"Due to yesterday's…ah… _incident_ , many agents have felt the need to drop out of the course and begin again some other time."

Perry looked around the dining hall. He had noticed that there seemed to be less agents around.

"Because of this, there was some reshuffling of the groups," Gwen continued. "The following is the amended list of groups."

When Group A was read out, it turned out than Peter, Pinky, _and_ Terry were now in Group A. Perry felt even worse than he had when he had first read the groups. He prayed that Priya had not been moved to a different group.

When Gwen got to the end of the list of groups, Perry was relieved. Priya had not been moved groups. They were still together.

They made their way outside with the rest of the group, which, besides them, consisted of a emo-like yellow bunny called Rae, a hyperactive squirrel named Seth, and twin snow leopards called Diana and Lewis.

Before they had even reached the place where they were doing their first activity, all four of the other teammates had annoyed Perry.

Diana and Lewis kept commenting on every single thing they saw, whether it be "that cloud just moved" or "that's a nice flower". Seth chattered non-stop, and whenever asked her anything, Rae just stared at the person who had asked her until they left her alone.

Perry gave up trying to make conversation with her very quickly.

It was lucky that the first activity wasn't too far away from COWCA HQ. When they got there, they found Lyla waiting for them, in front of a massive wooden climbing wall.

"Hey, everyone!" she said enthusiastically, clapping her hands together. "Today, we're going to be rock climbing. Now, I need you to choose a partner."

Perry and Priya didn't even need to look at each other; they just simultaneously sidled together. Diana and Lewis did exactly the same. Rae stared with contempt at Seth, who made an exaggerated grin back. "Great," Rae muttered.

That was the first word she had said in front of Perry.

Lyla took hold of a carabiner. "Has anyone been rock climbing before?"

Everybody shook their heads, except Perry, who nodded.

"Ah, you've done it before, P?"

Perry nodded.

"But the rest of you haven't?"

Everybody shook their heads again.

"Alright, well, it's easy. First, pick which one of you is climbing first."

Priya turned to Perry. "You're up, Ace."

"Why is my name suddenly Ace?" Perry grinned. "Okay, I'll go first."

Diana and Lewis had a ten second yet very heated argument, which Lewis apparently won. And on Perry's other side, Rae picked Seth up under his arms and put him down next to Lyla, a very clear signal that Seth was going first.

"Okay. Perry, why don't you go and help Seth and Diana into their harnesses while I show Rae, Lewis, and Priya how to belay?"

Perry nodded but it was easier said than done. Seth was hopeless at following orders. He kept wanting to climb the tower straight away, despite Perry's insistence and explanations as to why he needed to wear a harness. Meanwhile, Diana had already gotten into her harness…

…the wrong way round. Perry showed her which way to put it. After a few tries, she had it on right. She was still a quicker learner than Seth, who was now wearing his harness on his head.

By the time Lyla had finished prepping the other three, Perry had finally got the stupid squirrel into his harness. Lyla attached them to the ropes on the side of the wall, and they were off.

Seth tried to shoot up the wall, but Lyla yelled at him several times to wait until Rae had caught up with the belaying. Diana was making good progress but she kept stopping to check out the view. Perry himself went slow and steady. Before he knew it, he was halfway up. Diana was just behind him. Seth, however, was being given an intense safety talk, on the ground, by Lyla.

This was why Lyla didn't notice when Lewis lazily dropped the rope and pulled out a mobile phone. Perry glanced down and watched Priya angrily hiss at him to stop it, but it was at that moment that Diana lost her grip. Knowing that there was now nothing to stop the snow leopard from falling a hundred feet, Perry reached down and managed to grab her paw. Diana screamed, alerting Lyla to what was happening.

"LEWIS!" she screeched.

She ran up to the startled snow leopard, pushed him out the way, and began belaying for Diana, herself. When Perry found safe, he let go. Diana did not fall. This reassured Perry, and he signalled to Priya to show that he was ready to continue climbing.

When Perry reached the top, he found himself looking at miles and miles of scenery. To his left was a mountain range, covered in snow. To his right was miles of snowy fields. And in front of him was COWCA headquarters, nestled in the middle of both. After a few minutes of just looking at the view, Perry signalled to Priya to show that he was ready to come down.

When he reached the ground, he unbuckled his harness and made way for Priya.


	8. Rock Climbing part 2 of 2

Because neither Seth nor Diana had gotten very far—through their fault or otherwise—Lyla allowed Diana to belay for Rae, and Seth and Lewis, who were not allowed to take a turn, had to watch.

Perry helped Priya into her harness. "Uh, Perry? Is this a good or bad time to mention my slight fear of heights?"

"You'll be fine," Perry said, tightening the harness. "Just don't look down."

"That's what everyone says," Priya sighed. "And then I always look down."

"If you do look down, look for me." Perry took off his helmet and placed it on Priya's head, tightening the strap. "Look at me and only me. But only if you look down. Try not to look down. It'll make you feel worse."

Priya took a deep breath. "I don't know, Perry. I'm really nervous."

"Okay, tell you what. If for whatever reason you desperately need to come down, repeatedly slap your tail against the tower. That'll be the signal to me that you want to come down. Okay?"

"Okay," Priya said hesitantly.

Perry set her off climbing. For the first five minutes or so, she did very well. She was behind Rae, who Perry suspected had actually gone rock climbing before, but she made steady progress. Then she got three quarters of the way up and she must have looked down because Perry felt her stop. He expected her to hit her tail against the tower but it seemed that she was too scared to move.

"Priya?" Perry yelled up to her.

There was no indication that the purple platypus had heard him.

Perry beckoned to Diana, who came up to him. By that point, Rae had already made it back down from the top. He moved Diana into the position that he himself had just been in. "Stay RIGHT there," he said, and Diana must have heard the seriousness in Perry's tone because she nodded solemnly.

Perry then hurried to the spare harness and strapped himself in. "Belay for me," he called to Lyla, who nodded and ran into position.

As soon as he felt the pull of the rope, he began his ascent, ignoring everyone below him and focusing on getting to Priya. Because of Lyla's experience—and therefore speed—at belaying, and his own determination, he was going up faster than he was before. When he got to her level, he found the purple platypus pressed closely against the wall, clutching onto two handholds, her feet on two others. Her face was turned towards Perry but her eyes were tightly closed.

"Priya," Perry called gently.

Priya's eyes opened and she saw Perry. "I can't do it," she choked. "Perry, I can't move!"

"Let go with your left paw," Perry instructed her.

"I can't!" she panicked.

"It's alright. Just do it slowly. Slowly and reach it out towards me."

Priya took a deep breath and tried a couple of times to remove her paw from the handhold and on her third attempt, she managed it. Perry held his own hand out towards her. Priya reached out and took it. He saw her head move.

"Don't look down!" he ordered her. "Do not look down. It'll make it worse."

Priya's eyes caught Perry's. "That's good," Perry called encouragingly. "Keep looking at me. Now, lean back in your harness until you feel like you're on a lounge chair."

Priya did as Perry told her to. Perry copied the move until he was able to signal to Lyla and Diana to let them down. The rope was let out a bit, making Priya and Perry drop a little. Priya let out a choked scream. "You're doing fine!" Perry called to her. "Okay, can you jump out for me?"

Perry was aware that he was being more than a little patronising towards Priya, but she didn't seem to notice. She bent her legs and gave a small jump. Diana let go of the rope slightly, so that when Priya landed back on the wooden tower, she was slightly lower than Perry. "Keep doing that," called Perry. "You're doing great."

Perry waited until Priya was halfway down before beginning his own descent. He went moderately faster than Priya, so he reached the ground before her. He took off his harness and looked up to Priya, calling encouragements. As soon as Priya touched the ground, the agents around them applauded. Perry helped her get her harness off and was taken a bit aback when Priya launched herself at Perry and wrapped him in a big hug.

"Thank you," she gasped out.

"No problem."

Lyla clapped her hands. "Alright, gang. That's the session over. Time to go to lunch."

Perry realised he was starving. "Wanna get lunch?" he asked Priya.

The purple platypus nodded. "Heck yeah. Near death makes a gal hungry."

She took a step forward and wobbled. Perry steadied her. "Yikes," she commented, laughing. "My legs are so wobbly. I don't think I've been so terrified since my first battle with my nemesis four years ago."

"You have to tell me about that someday," Perry said as they began following the group. "And your nemesis too."

"Sure," smiled Priya. "And you can tell me about _your_ nemesis."

"How about over lunch?" Perry suggested. "I mean, I have it on good authority that we'll be allowed to sit outside for lunch today, since it's not raining."

"That sounds terrific," Priya said.


	9. Patty

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. Perry was spending more and more time with Priya and less time with Pinky, Peter, and Terry.

When Perry woke up on the Sunday morning, he realised that he had slept in until nine o' clock, instead of the usual six o' clock. For one confused moment, he couldn't figure out why the alarm hadn't gone off and woken him up. Then he remembered it was Sunday. Bleary eyed, he looked around the room and found that his friends' beds were empty. He felt a little hurt that they hadn't woken him up.

He figured that he'd probably missed breakfast—and he wasn't that hungry anyway—so he headed straight outside. Throughout the week, he had completely forgotten to ask Priya which room she was in, so he had to hope he'd bump into her somewhere.

Instead, he bumped into Peter the Panda at reception, where he had gone to find Priya. "Oh, hey, Perry," Peter said, sounding distracted.

"Is everything okay?" Perry asked.

He looked around the reception area and found that there were quite a few agents—maybe two dozen or so—crowded in there, all watching the glass doors.

"What is everyone doing here?"

Peter looked at Perry, who was startled to see a look of delight on his friend's face. "You know how there's the disco tonight?"

Perry paused. "Um, yeah?"

He had forgotten about it completely.

"Well, we're allowed to invite guests." Peter guessed what Perry was thinking. "And Patty's coming with Kimi!"

"That's great, Pete," Perry said absently.

Peter didn't seem to notice his lack of focus. "It'll be the first time I see my little daughter!" He jiggled from foot to foot, clearly very excited. "I can't wait to see her and Patty!"

"So when are they supposed to arrive?" asked Perry.

"Anytime now, actually."

As if on cue, a bus pulled up outside the doors. About half of the assembled agents pushed outside to get to it. Peter and Perry hung back. "So, I've never actually met Patty," Perry said. "Is she an OWCA agent?"

"Kinda," Peter replied, frowning. "Even before she was pregnant, she only came in for specialist office work. She only needs to come in a few days a month."

"Fair enough," Perry commented. "So she's coming with Kimi?"

"Yeah. There she is!"

Peter pushed forwards, leaving Perry behind. "I'll just hang back here, then…" he said awkwardly.

Perry watched other agents' reunions. He knew he was prying, but he couldn't help himself. He watched a female fox agent greet her four children. He watched a dog agent get a surprise visit from his parents. He even caught sight of Rae the Rabbit, in the midst of a hug from her relatives. For once, she looked happy. It made Perry feel sad that Phineas and Ferb weren't there.

Peter returned, holding the paw of a panda who looked strikingly similar to Peter himself, except for the fact that she was light yellow in colour and she was wearing a floral sundress.

"Perry, this is my mate, Patty. Patty, this is my best friend, Perry."

Perry and Patty shook hands. "It's nice to meet you," Perry said.

"And _this…"_ Peter took the baby panda off Patty's back. "This is Kimi."

Peter held the baby panda out for Perry to hold. Perry awkwardly held his arms out, and the baby was placed into them. He stared uncomfortably down at the small bundle of white fur, which felt stiff an heavy in his arms.

While Peter supervised, Patty wandered away to look at the decorations on the ceiling. It had been a long time since she had seen the design…

 _"Agent Ellershaw, explain yourself!" snapped the angry Captain Colophon._

 _Edie shifted the small yellow panda in her arms. "Sir, I found this panda in the hands of the Canadian League Of Villainous Evildoers Maniacally United For Frightening Investments in Naughtiness. She was going to be experimented on, ripped apart, turned into a machine instead of a living creature. We couldn't let that happen, sir."_

 _As Edie was talking, the small yellow panda was staring at the intricate designs on the ceiling. She enjoyed looking at the swirls and stars that decorated the domed ceiling. She traced them with her paws. The patterns were burned into her memory._

"Patty?"

A voice brought her out of her memory. Peter was calling her name. Patty shook her head to clear it. "Sorry, Pete."

"Are you okay? You looked lost in thought, there."

"I'm fine," Patty said. "Have you thought about where Kimi's going to go when we go to the disco?"

"Actually, yes." Peter seemed pleased with himself. "Perry has offered for him and his friend Priya to look after Kimi while we go to the disco and then we can come back and spend some time with Kim while _they_ go to the disco."

"Is Perry sure? We don't want to put him to any trouble."

"That's what I said." Peter shrugged. "But Perry said it was fine. He's pretty stubborn when he wants to be."

Perry approached the two pandas at that moment. Kimi wasn't crying, but she was struggling in Perry's arms. It was clear that she wanted one of her parents. "Help," Perry said, an uncomfortable look on his face.

Patty took Kimi from Perry and tenderly rocked the baby until she fell asleep.

Perry flexed his arms. "That child is heavy," he remarked. "For a baby who was only born a few days ago, I mean. By the way, I never asked. Where did Pinky and Terry go?"

Peter shrugged. "They were gone when I woke up. I came straight down here."

Perry sighed. On a complex this big, they could be anywhere. He decided to go find them. He waved goodbye to Peter and Patty, and set off.


	10. Plantation Peril

Perry really did not want to search the entire complex so he headed straight for the pool. On the way there, he bumped into Priya.

"Oh _there_ you are, Perry! We've been looking everywhere for you!"

She took his hand and dragged him outside to the place where they had met for rock climbing. Reuben was handing out various pieces of equipment.

Priya dragged Perry over to where Pinky and Terry were waiting. "Guys, I found him."

"You didn't happen to see Pete, did you?" Terry asked.

"Yeah, he's with Patty," Perry answered. "She arrived for the disco about half an hour ago."

"Well that would explain why we never saw him," Pinky said.

"So what's this all about?" Perry indicated the group. "I'm guessing this is one of the optional Sunday activities."

"It's like orienteering," Pinky explained. "Basically, there are twenty red flares hidden in the forest, and each team has to find three. The first team back out of the forest with three wins. The winning team will get an award during the awards evening."

"Okay," Perry said. "I think I got it."

"They're allowing groups of four," Priya said. "So without Peter, Terry figured it could be the four of us."

"Hey, Perry!"

Perry turned to see Peter coming towards them. "Hey, Pete. Where's Patty?"

"With Millie the Minx," Peter answered. "They're old friends, apparently. They started chatting so I excused myself. So what's going on here?"

As Pinky explained the rules to him, Terry turned to Priya and Perry. "One of us is going to have to join a different group," he said. "We're only allowed four in a group."

Luckily, they were spared from choosing. At that moment, a red flying squirrel caught sight of Priya and waved. "Hey, Priy! Come join our group!"

Priya made an apologetic face. "At least now you don't have to choose," she said. She saw Perry's questioning face. "That's Florey the Flying Squirrel. She's one of my roommates. I'm coming, Flo!"

Priya turned and walked to Florey, who greeted her with a massive hug. Priya looked over her shoulder at Perry, with nothing less than an expression of agony on her face. Perry shrugged apologetically.

…

"We're lost." Perry was the first one to say it.

"We're not lost!" snapped Pinky, turning his map from the right way up to upside down and back again. "Does anyone know which way north is?"

"None of us have any idea which way is north," Terry sighed. "This is why they shouldn't have given us a map."

"We're going to starve out here," groaned Peter, dragging himself dramatically across the ground.

"Pete, get up." Perry was in no mood for this.

The four agents stopped in a clearing. Pinky adjusted his map a few more times before giving up. "Okay…well _now_ we're lost," he admitted.

Perry blamed Pinky. "If you were able to read a map better, we wouldn't _be_ lost!"

Pinky blamed Peter. "Well, if Peter hadn't dragged us so far off the path to find some non-existent flare, we wouldn't be this far into the woods!"

Peter blamed Perry. "But if Perry hadn't made us go right at the first intersection, we'd be closer to HQ and be able to find our way back!"

Terry didn't blame anyone. "Guys, enough. Your reasons for blaming each other are all flimsy at best. We have to begin finding our way back."

Peter got up. "But we only have two flares," he said, producing them from his backpack.

"Put them away," Terry snapped. "We know we only have two, but would you rather lose the tournament or our lives?"

"I don't think you want me to answer that question."

Perry ignored Peter and looked up at the darkening sky through the canopy of trees. "It's getting dark."

"It's going to rain," Terry said matter-of-factly. "It's actually not that late. We're not going to-." He coughed loudly, interrupting himself. "-miss the disco." He managed to finish his sentence before coughing again.

"Are you okay, Terry?"

"Fine," he coughed. "I just have a headache."

"And a cold too, by the sounds of it," Peter commented.

Pinky reached up and felt the orange turtle's forehead. "Yikes. You're burning up."

At that moment, it began to rain heavily. "Great…" Perry muttered.

"We need to find shelter," Pinky said.

He started off into the trees. Perry saw the almost invisible river just moments too late. "Pinky!"

But Pinky was already gone. Perry turned to Peter as he ran towards the river. "Look after Terry and if you see any berries, don't eat them!"

Perry dived into the river and, just like he had all those days ago when Pinky fell into the pool, kicked his legs and tail and pulled with his arms. The river carried him along until he found Pinky clutching onto a rock in the middle of the stream.

He seized Pinky's hand and climbed out of the river with him. He didn't fancy trying to make their way back to the others in the river, with the current as fast as it was. He set off running but Pinky had gone into a state of shock and didn't want to move. Perry dragged the Chihuahua along until he spotted the clearing through the blinding rain. As he went towards it, he felt a sudden searing pain in his left leg. A sharp vine of thorns had somehow gotten itself wrapped around Perry's leg. The more he tugged, the more the vine hurt him. The more he pulled, the tighter the vine wrapped around his leg. He let go of Pinky's hand and gingerly unwrapped his leg from the vine. It hurt a lot, and Perry could see red blood soaking the fur on his leg.

He retook Pinky's hand and limped into the clearing to find Peter with berry juice dripping down his face.

"Peter!" Perry hissed through the pain of his leg. "I told you not to eat any berries! Why?"

"I was hungry," Peter said sheepishly, wiping his mouth with the back of his paw.

"Alright, well…at least there was no harm done. So which way do you think we should go?"

"To the cliffs yonder."

"What?" Perry turned back to Peter in confusion.

The panda had a dopey look on his face, his posture was weird, and his movements were exaggerated. And he began singing. "AHHH, THE CLIFFS OVER YOONDER!"

"Peter, shut up!"

Perry didn't even think it was a real song that Peter was singing. "Oh man, we have to get out of here," Perry muttered.

He had an idea. He hurriedly took out his phone from his backpack and checked…

"Yes! YES!"

"What?" Pinky asked, terrified.

"I have phone service!" Perry hurriedly dialled Priya's number.

She answered on the second ring. "Oh my God, Perry!" Perry winced at the volume of her voice. "Where are you? The other teams came back hours ago! Are you all okay?"

Perry swallowed, involuntary tears dripping down his face at the pain in his leg. "No, Priy. We're not. Pete's delusional, Pinky nearly drowned _again_ , Terry's got some kind of fever, and I hurt my leg really badly. I can barely walk, and I'm the only one who actually has all my wits."

"I'LL TAKE SOME PIE PLEASE," Peter bellowed in the background, as if to prove Perry's point.

"Hold on, I'll tell Reuben."

The phone clicked off. At that moment, Perry realised that Peter was just about to walk into the river. He dropped his phone, ran, and pulled Peter back just before he dropped into the water. He pushed his friend onto the bank, where the panda lay and giggled madly. Then Peter jumped up and ran for the river again. Perry struggled to hold him back. "Pete!" he shrieked. "Come _on!"_

Perry's phone rang again but Perry couldn't answer it because Peter would run into the river and get swept away if Perry let his friend go. He desperately looked to see if Pinky could answer it but he spotted the Chihuahua hanging onto a tree branch about fifty feet above them. "Pinky, what the heck…?" Perry muttered.

He looked towards Terry, but the orange turtle was barely conscious.

The situation was so frustrating, that Perry couldn't contain his rage. "WHY ARE YOU ALL SUCH MASSIVE MORONS?" he screamed.

That seemed to shock something into Terry, because he managed to reach out and tap "answer" and somehow "speaker" too. "Perry?" Priya's voice filled the air.

"PRIYA!" Perry yelled. "WHAT DO I DO?"

"Reuben says send up one of the flares!"

"I CAN'T EXACTLY DO THAT RIGHT NOW!" Perry screeched, wrestling with Peter.

But again, it seemed that Terry was spurred into action. He brought out one of the matches, lit the fuse, and rolled away, coming to a stop near the river, where he passed out.

Perry used the last of his strength to push Peter away from the river. The panda tripped over a tree root and knocked himself out. Perry fell to his hands and knees, the pain in his leg becoming unbearable. He barely noticed when the flare shot up into the sky with a loud hiss. Even the explosion of the flare didn't make him look up. He rolled onto his back and closed his eyes. Because of the dull pain, sleep came easily.


	11. Rockin' The Mic (disco part 1 of 2)

Perry slowly opened his eyes and found the worried face of Priya looking down on him. When she saw that he was awake, she sighed in relief. "Thank goodness," she breathed. "I mean, the doctor told me your condition wasn't serious but I still worried."

Perry sat up in the bed, wincing at a sharp pain in his leg. "The most obvious yet cliché question to ask would be: where am I?"

"The hospital wing of COWCA," Priya answered, her voice shaking. "All four of you were found in the forest, thanks to the flare."

"My friends…are they okay?"

Perry craned his neck to see around the white hospital room. He saw several other beds, most of them empty. But he did catch sight of Peter, who was lying on the bed next to him.

"Peter's absolutely fine," Priya told him. "The berries he ate were hallucinogenic but they've already been flushed out of his system. He'll be up and about like nothing ever happened, once the anaesthetic wears off."

"How do you know they were berries?"

"The doctor told me only one thing could have made him that delusional, and that was a certain type of berry that grows in the forest."

"What about Terry and Pinky?"

"Pinky's being treated for shock." Priya's face was sympathetic. "And Terry does have a fever, but it's not serious. It's like a more severe cold. The doctor doesn't know what caused it but she told me if he takes it easy, he should be back on normal activities by Tuesday at the latest."

Perry felt relieved. His friends were okay. "So what day is it?" he asked.

Priya looked confused. "You haven't been out that long, Perry. It's still Sunday. The disco started an hour ago."

Perry tried to work that out. "What time did you find me?"

"About three."

"And the disco starts at…?"

"Seven," Priya supplied again.

"So I've only been out for five hours?"

Priya shrugged. "Yeah. I guess your subconscious mind didn't want to stay asleep for longer."

"So will any of my friends be able to go to the disco?" Perry asked.

"I don't know," Priya replied. "Pinky probably won't want to—and I think he still has a couple more hours' therapy anyway. Terry's too ill…but if Peter wakes up in the next hour or so and still wants to go, then I'm sure he'll be able to. Why, were you going to go as a group?"

"A-actually…"

Perry felt awkward. Here was his chance to ask Priya to the disco, something he'd been rehearsing for throughout his time in the woods, and he couldn't form the words. In the first couple of hours of the race in the woods, before they had gotten lost, Perry had been mentally preparing himself to ask Priya, figuring that they'd probably get back by one o' clock and he'd have plenty of time to psych himself up again if it didn't work. But now the disco was in an hour…and Perry's brain didn't want to form the words.

"Perry? Is everything okay?" asked Priya. "What were you going to say?"

 _Come on, Perry!_ he chided himself. _You're a fearless OWCA agent. You've won ninety-five percent of your battles with Doofenshmirtz. You've been on countless other missions and you've always emerged the victor. You're fearless. You proved that two summers ago. Come on. Just do it. If you don't, you'll regret it for the rest of your life._

He took a deep breath and blurted, "W-who are you going to the disco with?"

Priya looked surprised. "Well, I guess I was going to go on my own. I mean, you would have had your group, and my roommates didn't invite me, so…I guess I might not go at all."

"W-would you like to go to the disco with me?"

The words slipped out of Perry's mouth, and he was instantly glad he had said them. Even if Priya now said no, at least he wouldn't live his life regretting that he hadn't even asked.

He needn't have worried.

Though surprised at Perry's sudden outburst, a big smile spread over Priya's face. "I would love to, Perry. Thank you."

At that moment, Peter stirred. "Pete," called Perry.

"What?" mumbled Peter sleepily. "Go 'way."

"Are you going to the disco?"

"Nah," Peter muttered. "I'll spend some time with Kimi and Patty."

"Are you sure? Because I can look after Kimi fi you want to-"

"Discos have never really been my thing. You kids go have fun."

…

Arms linked, Priya and Perry entered the dining hall. All the benches and tables had been pushed back to form a circle in the middle, where agents were already dancing. Multi-coloured lights and a disco ball hanging from the ceiling were the source of the funky lighting. The stage that was usually used for announcements was decorated with streamers, and Lyla, Edie, and Reuben were singing into karaoke microphones. Perry recognised the song they were singing as one of PFT's newest songs: Summer All Over The World.

" _Well, if not the world,"_ sang the group. _"Then at least in the Northern Hemisphere. The other half is in a different time of year but they can still say,_

" _Ooh! Yeah!"_ sang the crowd, Perry along with them. _"Ooh! Ooh! Yeah!"_

The song finished with a guitar solo. The crowd of agents applauded. Lyla was breathing heavily as she shouted into the microphone, "Thank you, COWCA. You've been a wonderful audience!"

That got a laugh.

"Now, we've been at the mic for a while," Lyla continued. She seemed to catch sight of Perry. She gave him a wink. "So how about my main man…or platypus…come up and give us a song?"

Perry realised Lyla was talking about him. Next to him, Priya squealed. "Come on, Perry! Go sing!"

Perry didn't want to refuse but he also didn't want to go up there alone. "Let's both sing," he said.

Priya grinned. "Oh yes. This'll be fun."

Hand in hand, Perry and Priya ascended the stage, to the delight of the crowd. There was a screen at the back of the room, that displayed the lyrics. Now it showed all the songs that they could choose from. "What do you want to do?" Perry asked. "I know all of these songs so you pick one you know."

Priya went through the selection of songs and eventually picked one. "Aerial Area Rug?" Perry thought she would go for a really famous one like Gitchee Gitchee Goo.

"I really like the song," Priya explained.

"That's fine. I'll do the blue lines, you do the pink."

The music started.

The first lines were in blue, so Perry hoped he wouldn't embarrass himself and started singing.

 _You can't see much of the skyline_

 _It looks like more of a grid_

 _It's a viable variation of view_

 _But it's something I'm sure we'll be glad that we did_

The next lines were pink, which meant Priya. The platypus opened her bill and sang:

 _It's not like the world that we see from the ground_

 _I guess the main difference is we're looking down_

The next lines were both of them.

 _So climb on our aerial area rug_

 _It's certain to keep us aloft_

 _Its aerodynamics are highly advanced_

 _And its weave is so tight and so soft_

Priya's high voice perfectly harmonised with Perry's lower voice.

 _Though this vista's diverse_

 _Is it better or worse?_

 _If you'll ask, I'll just give you a shrug_

 _But you can vary your view of the area_

 _From our aerial area rug_

These lines were Priya:

 _It's a brand new perspective_

 _Literally_

These lines were Perry:

 _We can see the tops of buildings_

 _Come along with me_

The final verse was for both of them.

 _You can vary your view of the area_

 _From our aerial area rug_

 _You can vary your view of the area_

 _From our aerial area rug_

As the last notes died away, the audience whooped and cheered. Priya and Perry grinned at each other. "That was pretty great," Priya said.

"Yes, yes it was." Perry turned to Lyla, who was standing by the side of the stage, grinning. "Should we come down now, or…?"

Still grinning, Lyla took to the stage and said into the microphone, "Alright, folks. Grab a partner because it's time for _There's No One I'd Rather Go Nowhere With_."

Perry and Priya started to step down from the stage but Lyla stopped them. "It'd be great if you could sing that, guys."

"Us?" repeated Priya.

"Your voices are great together. Plus, everyone's started shipping you two, and we need to give the public what they want."

"What's shipping?" Perry asked, confused, but Priya took his hand.

"Come, Perry. Let's sing like our lives depend on it."

Perry looked at the crowd. Barely anybody was looking at the stage; they had all "grabbed a partner", as Lyla had told them too. "Alright," he said. "Let's do it."

The music started…

 _You know we're going nowhere fast_

 _And we got no destination._

 _Nothin' scheduled,_

 _We got no chores to do._

 _The sun is up, the wind is warm_

 _And we're clear of all obligation._

 _We're taking the scenic route,_

 _Just enjoy the view._

 _Ooohh-uhh-uuhh..._

 _(Pa-pa-pa-pa...)_

 _There's no one that I'd rather go nowhere with than you, uhh-uuhh..._

 _(Pa-pa-pa-pa...)_

 _There's no one that I'd rather go nowhere with than you._

 _We don't need a compass,_

 _We don't need a guiding star._

 _We don't need a GPS_

 _To tell us where we are,_

 _'Cause we know where we are._

 _Ooohh-uhh-uuhh..._

 _(Pa-pa-pa-pa...)_

 _There's no one that I'd rather go nowhere with than you, uhh-uuhh..._

 _(Pa-pa-pa-pa...)_

 _There's no one that I'd rather go nowhere with than you!_

 _(Pa-pa-pa-pa...)_

 _There's no one that I'd rather go nowhere with than you!_

When the song finished, Perry's eardrums nearly burst from the amount of noise that was generated from the audience.


	12. Flashbacks & Romance (disco part 2 of 2)

Perry and Priya stepped down from the stage, and Diana and Lewis immediately replaced them.

That was fine with the two platypuses.

The two snow leopards actually had very nice voices. First, Lewis did a solo and sang _Hockey Z-9_ , which got everybody dancing, including Perry and Priya.

Then Diana did _her_ solo and sang _Let's Spend Half a Day_ , which made Perry feel sentimental. He remembered that day two summers ago when his cover was in danger and he had had to take a day off. He had enjoyed it with Phineas and Ferb in the park, doing all sorts of fun activities.

Finally, the two snow leopards together began _Gitchee Gitchee Goo_.

Perry held Priya's hand and twirled her. While they were dancing, Perry was singing along to the song, and he could tell Priya was too.

Halfway through the song, Priya took Perry's hand and lead him outside onto a stone balcony. There was a stone bench out there, and that was where the two platypuses sat.

"Pretty secret balcony," Perry remarked. "I didn't even know there was a balcony out here."

"Yeah," Priya said. "I think it's only open for events like these, though. That's why we haven't been out here before."

Perry looked out at the view. He could see the twinkling yellow lights of a couple of towns in the distance, along with the looming outline of the mountain range. He looked sideways at Priya, and found her gazing out at the scenery. "It's beautiful," she said.

"Very beautiful," Perry agreed, though Priya incorrectly assumed he was talking about the view.

"I wish we could stay in this moment forever."

The two platypuses stayed outside, watching the view and listening to the music. At one point, Lyla, Edie, and Reuben did a reprise of _Summer All Over The World_ , followed by Reuben singing the song _Brand New Reality_. Perry's personal favourite was when some random dog agent sang _The Way of the Platypus_ , from one of Perry's favourite movies: "Doof Dynasty".

"So, tell me about your nemesis," Priya said eventually, listening to the final bars of _The Way of the Platypus._ "What's his or her name?"

"His name is Heinz Doofenshmirtz," Perry replied, choosing his words carefully. If not contained, he could often go on a half hour rant about his nemesis. "He's weird. Barely any of his –inators are actually evil, and some of his schemes are just plain stupid."

There was a pause as the first bars of the song _Let's Go Digital_ began. "Give me an example." Priya seemed really interested.

"Okay. Well, a couple of summers ago, he taught himself whale song in order to insult whales because his old girlfriend liked them better than him and left him to be with them."

Priya laughed. "Wow."

"It gets worse," Perry sighed. "He's convinced he invented the leaf blower, just because he called it the "atomic leaf-blower-inator."

"What's the stupidest name he's ever come up with for an –inator?"

"Giant Robotic Penguin Icy Freeze Your Socks Off Breath-inator," Perry answered immediately.

Priya laughed again. "That is quite stupid."

"Yeah." Perry looked down. "I feel bad for the guy, though. His parents put him through a lot of bad stuff when he was a kid. They didn't show up for his own birth, he was disowned and raised by wild ocelots, and his younger brother, Roger, was always their favourite. He hates Roger for that reason."

"Oh yes, Roger Doofenshmirtz. He's the mayor of Danville, right? So his brother's your nemesis?"

"Yep," Perry answered. "So who's _your_ nemesis?"

Priya sighed. "Doctor Diminutive."

Perry struggled to contain his laughter. "What, the "I don't have a Napoleon complex, Napoleon had a me complex" guy?"

"Yeah," she sighed. "I was assigned to him four summers ago, when his previous nemesis's cover was blown."

Perry facepalmed. "That was Doof," he said. "Poor Agent Silent G."

"Yeah, I know." Priya giggled. "I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't be laughing. It's just that…he does more harm inside OWCA than outside."

"Yeah."

There was another pause. Perry recognised Lyla's and Reuben's voices beginning to sing _Don't Look Down._ "So…you never told me about your first mission. Want to talk about it?"

"Sure. It was literally the most scared I have ever been in my whole life…apart from last week's rock climbing, of course."

As Priya told the story, she felt herself slipping into a flashback.

" _Hey, where's Priya?"_

 _Priya escaped her host's line of sight and ran into the garage. There was an old washing machine in the corner, that belonged to her host, Janet. She pressed a button on the outside, swung into the machine, and closed the door. She felt herself falling down into her lair. She landed in her seat and saw the big face of Major Monogram looking down on her._

" _Ah, Agent P. I'm glad to see you're adjusting to OWCA life. I've assigned you to Doctor Diminutive. Be aware: he's a little high-strung about his height…no pun intended. Anyway, he's been seen buying up all the books on molecular disintegration that the bookshops in Danville have. Go put a stop to it."_

 _Priya saluted and used her jetpack to fly to Doctor Diminutive's building. She burst through the window and landed in a battle stance. Instantly, a cage fell down on her and lifted her up. "Ah, you must be my replacement nemesis," said an evil voice from the shadows._

 _Priya was starting to feel more nervous now…_

… _until a very short man in a white coat stepped out of the shadows. "Well, well, well. A purple platypus. A friend of mine has a platypus nemesis too. Well, I'm guessing you can't talk, so you can't tell me your name."_

 _Priya took a business card out of her hat and gave it to Doctor Diminutive, who took it and read it aloud. ""Priya the Platypus. OWCA agent." Huh. Well, Priya the Platypus…do you mind if I just call you Priya?"_

 _Priya shrugged._

" _Anyway…" Doctor Diminutive scuttled over to a massive sheet that was hiding an invention. "BEHOLD! THE DISINTEGRATE-ERATOR!" He pulled off the sheet, revealing a massive machine. "In case you couldn't tell from the name, it disintegrates everything it hits!"_

 _He paused. "Hmm…maybe I should try it out."_

 _With an evil grin, he turned the -erator to point at Priya, who flattened herself against the back of the cage in horror._

" _How about I disintegrate YOU?"_

 _Priya felt terrified. A mixture of tears and sweat trickled down her face. She couldn't think properly. Her heart thudded in her chest. She felt both hot and cold at the same time. Her tail and body were shaking. She knew it was the end. Her first mission in OWCA and she was going to be disintegrated. Poor Janet wouldn't know what had happened to her. Maybe Monogram would tell her._

 _Then came the most relieving words she had ever heard: "Nah, I think I'll disintegrate something else."_

 _Priya felt like she would faint with relief._

" _After all, we were getting along so nicely. Maybe I'll test some later –erator on you. Besides, if I kill you, I won't have a nemesis anymore. It was bad enough waiting three months for a replacement for Agent Silent G. That's three LOVEMUFFIN monthly meetings I had to sit, silent and nemesis-less, while everyone else chatted about their nemeses. Doctor Bloodpudding didn't have a nemesis either, but who cares about that guy? Even Rodney has a nemesis…he's such a show-off."_

 _While Doctor Diminutive nattered away, half to himself, Priya fished her screwdriver out of her hat and picked the lock. Then she launched herself at Doctor Diminutive and kicked him in the face._

"Then I destroyed his –erator and took off," Priya finished.

Perry felt sympathy for her. "It must have been really scary, huh?"

"Yeah," Priya admitted. "I thought I was going to die—and on my first mission too. Mostly I hated that I was going to leave Janet, my host, without her knowing about my double life."

"Does she know now?" Perry asked.

"Doesn't everyone's host family?" Priya nodded. "Yeah, she does. She was quite cool about it. How about yours?"

Perry thought back to that forgotten day with Doofenshmirtz, his host family, and the Other-Dimension-inator. "The children in my family, Phineas and Ferb, found out about two summers' ago. There was a huge escapade involving another dimension and another dimensional dictator—long story—and at the end, they had to forget about the whole adventure—and me—because of OWCA's harsh policy of relocation at the time."

"That's rough," Priya commented sympathetically.

"Yeah, but last year, when OWCA's policy was lifted, they still found out by accident. Typical. But I didn't have to explain because seeing me triggered the memory of the adventure we had."

"It must have been some adventure," Priya said wistfully. "Janet found out when she walked into the room where I was bandaging my leg up after a particularly rough fight with Doctor Diminutive. Luckily, I already had the translator on me, and I could explain. I'm not sure what she was more shocked about: the fact that her pet could talk or the fact that her pet was a secret agent. I think she's come to terms with it now, though whenever I come back, she always has a relieved look on her face. She knows working for OWCA is dangerous. She worries about me a lot."

After this, the two were silent, listening to _Summer Belongs to You_ now being sung.

After about ten minutes, Perry stood up. "I guess we'd better head in," he said. "It's getting cold."

Priya also stood up. "Yeah, I guess we'd better."

Perry took Priya's hands. "Thanks for a great evening."

"You too," Priya said. "I thought I wouldn't have a great evening after that whole "getting lost in the woods" incident, but I really did have a good time. And thanks for listening about that mission."

"No problem," Perry said.

There was a pause. The moment seemed right to Perry so he leaned in. Priya smiled and also leaned in. The moment their beaks touched, Perry felt complete. He would never have expected that the first girl he would ever kiss would be the one girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.


	13. I'm Really Starting To Despise Thorns

The morning after, at breakfast, Perry kept stealing glances at Priya, and he could tell Priya was doing the same at him. Throughout the day, whenever a member of their group jokingly referred to Perry as "Priya's boyfriend" or Priya as "Perry's girlfriend"—which they did quite often, for some reason—neither platypus corrected them.

The first activity was archery, and Perry dominated it. He had always had exceptional aim, whether with a gun—which he didn't like using—or with a bow and arrow. After his go was over, he encouraged Priya, who didn't do too badly, though her skills were clearly better elsewhere.

At lunch, Perry was finding it easier to talk to Priya, as opposed to how hard he thought it would be, after their kiss the previous evening. They had a discussion about their venomous ankle barbs. It turned out that Priya still had hers, although Perry had lost his during one of his battles with Doofenshmirtz.

After lunch, Perry was pleasantly surprised to see Monty Monogram waiting to take their group to their next activity. On the way down, Monty explained his appearance. "Your friend Lyla helped my dad out on an assignment a couple of weeks ago," he said. "Afterwards, she happened to walk in on an argument between me and Dad. I was angry because he wouldn't let me join OWCA and fight crime like him. Lyla told me that COWCA didn't just take animals, and I didn't need to be born in Canada. Dad wasn't happy, but he knew he couldn't stop me. So after a couple of training assignments, they deemed me ready to lead an activity here at the retreat."

Monty's story happened to end just as they reached their destination. Perry had been apprehensive when he realised they were going into the same woods in which his group had gotten lost, but he knew that Monty knew where he was going. They stopped by the same—or so Perry assumed—river that Pinky had fallen in when they got lost. Perry wondered if Pinky's group had already done that activity or if they had yet to do it.

Strung across the wide mouth of the river was a single rope with two rope handrails either side, which were attached to large wooden stakes on either side of the river.

"Okay guys," Monty said, lining up the group. "You're going to go across this bridge in pairs."

He paused. "Yes, Seth?"

The squirrel had his hand in the air. "Um, sir? Is this the activity?"

"Yes it is." Monty didn't seem annoyed with the question. "So as I was saying, you'll be going across the bridge in different ways, but always in pairs. The goal is that the challenges will get harder with every one progressed. Questions?"

There were no questions.

"Alright, get into pairs."

As before, Perry and Priya sidled together. But this time, Diana and Rae paired up, which initially surprised Perry, but then he remembered the two working together in the rock climbing last week. Plus, Diana probably didn't want to go with Lewis because of the aforementioned rock climbing, and it was clear that Rae despised the small ball of fur that was Seth.

Lewis gave the squirrel a glare. Seth grinned maniacally back. "Someone drop me in the river now," Lewis muttered. "It's what this stupid rodent's gonna do later anyway."

Perry looked at Monty, but the instructor hadn't heard. It was lucky; Perry knew how Monty hated people who used an agent's species as a derogatory term, as Lewis had just done.

"Rae and Diana, why don't you go first?" Monty said.

Both animals shrugged at the same time and simultaneously walked over to the beginning of the bridge.

"Okay, for this first one, I just want you two to walk across the bridge. Slowly," Monty instructed.

The two animals did. They walked as if they were mentally in sync, and they were on the other side in no time.

"Okay, now Seth and Lewis."

The same happened, except Seth perched on Lewis's head while the snow leopard trekked slowly to the other side. Monty was trying not to laugh at the various annoyed looks Lewis kept throwing back at him, as if to say, in varying degrees of irritation, _hey, mister trainer guy? Could you get this stupid squirrel off my head?_

Soon it was Perry and Priya's turn. Perry stepped onto the rope, testing it, and then held out his hand to Priya, who took it. It was a fairly easy task, but it obviously had to go wrong.

When the two platypuses were in the middle of the bridge, Perry heard a dull _thunk_ sound. He didn't know exactly what happened but suddenly the rope was no longer holding them up. Perry and Priya both screamed as the rope fell with them in the fast-flowing, freezing river.

It was colder than it had been last night. Perry knew that much. It was also flowing a lot faster than the last time Perry was in there. He had seized Priya's hand just before they hit the water, but it was becoming increasingly harder to keep that physical bond as the river carried them farther away from Monty and the group. Even though both of them were semi-aquatic, the current was too fast for them to try and swim against it.

Eventually, Perry and Priya both managed to catch hold of a rock in the middle of the river.

"Perry!" Priya screeched to be heard over the sound of the raging water.

Perry looked over at her.

"I read about this river! Apparently there's a massive waterfall a little further on! If we don't make it out of the river by the time we hit that waterfall, we won't make it!"

Perry felt his heart sink (no pun intended) but he didn't have time to dwell on it because at that moment the current ripped Perry and Priya's grips from the rock and carried them further down the river.

Perry suddenly felt a searing pain in his injured leg. It felt the same as when he had caught his leg on the thorns yesterday evening…

Perry looked at his leg and found another sharp vine of thorns wrapped around his leg, digging into his already injured leg. "Well that's just typical," Perry muttered.

Then he saw what the other end of the vine was attached to: the long end of the vine was wrapped tightly around a heavy looking rock, which was flowing quicker than he was.

"OH COME ON!" he yelled, just as the rock dragged him faster down the river.

"Perry!" screamed Priya.

He couldn't see her but he twisted round and the thing he _was_ able to see was the sheer drop that belonged to the waterfall. He managed to clutch hold of a small rock but then his leg flared up with pain. It felt like his leg was being pulled off. He didn't understand properly why, until he realised.

Gravity.

The rock was hanging off the cliff and, since it couldn't pull the vine off Perry's leg, it was trying to get Perry to join it.

Perry yelled aloud, eyes tightly shut. He could hardly bear the pain. Something needed to cut the vine so that he could go free, but what?

Then he realised what could save him.

He opened his eyes. Spray from the waterfall was in his eyes and he could barely see but he yelled, "PRIYA! YOUR ANKLE BARB! CUT THE VINE!"

He heard someone shout something back but he didn't hear. After about ten agonising seconds, he heard Priya scream his name. Almost instantly after that, the weight pulling Perry's leg was lifted as the rock tumbled over the waterfall. Priya grabbed Perry's hand and the two platypuses gave one last burst of strength to propel both of them onto the bank, where they flopped on their backs next to each other, panting heavily, still holding hands.

After a moment, Perry muttered, "I think we're lost."

That made both of them laugh like they were never going to stop. They had survived.


	14. Good Old Fashioned Fun

After a short spell in hospital, Perry and Priya were discharged. Priya was convinced that it was somehow her fault, before Perry reminded her that she saved his life.

Monty visited the two in hospital, just to check they were okay. He also blamed himself, for not checking that the rope bridge was secure, but both Perry and Priya told him that it wasn't his fault.

When they were discharged, they found they had missed supper, but it didn't matter to them. They went back to Perry's room. Pinky, Terry, and Peter had all been worried about them, but upon seeing that they were okay, the three of them left to go to the pool. Perry and Priya "regretfully" declined the invitation to join them. Both platypuses had had enough of water for one week. Instead, they sat on Perry's bed and chatted.

"So, tell me about your life," Priya said. "When's your birthday?"

"May 4th," Perry sighed. "I've had to endure everyone coming up to me and saying "May the fourth be with you!" and it gets quite annoying after a while. When's yours?"

"September 28th," Priya replied. "Nothing special on that day."

"Well, it's the day you came into the world, so I'd say that's pretty special."

Priya laughed. "Thank you," she said. "I'm not sure everyone would feel that way. Anyway…did you know your parents?"

Perry shrugged. "Not really. I was born into OWCA to Pearl and Patrick, two of OWCA's top agents. They…died during an attack on OWCA HQ."

"I'm sorry," Priya said. "That's hard. My parents died too…but they weren't part of OWCA. Their names were Ravi and Ash. They lived on the street, and that's where I was born. Major Monogram found me and put me up for adoption. When were you adopted?"

"I remember the date exactly," Perry sighed. "It was August 18th 2002."

"Oh my gosh," Priya gasped. "I was put up for adoption on August 20th that same year."

"Missed each other by two days," Perry said. "That's unfortunate."

"Yeah," agreed Priya. "But Janet adopted me within a few weeks, so I was fairly lucky."

Perry and Priya talked until Peter, Terry, and Pinky came back from the pool. After Priya left, Perry settled down to go to sleep, while Peter and Terry sat on the latter's bed and Pinky lay on his own bed. It was almost completely dark.

After a while, he heard Terry's voice. "Hey, Perry? Did we tell you what happened at the pool?"

"Don't you dare!" came Pinky's voice immediately.

"No," Perry said, rolling over to face Terry's bed. "What happened at the pool? Now you have to tell me."

"Okay, so Pinky saw this girl border collie at the pool, right?"

Perry grimaced. Any story that began with a sentence containing both of the words "Pinky" and "girl" was surely going to end in disaster.

"She was quite small for a border collie," Terry continued. Perry could again almost hear the grin in his voice. "Black and white. Apparently quite pretty because Pinky decided he was going to talk to her."

"Oh I hate you so much right now, Terry!" Pinky groaned.

"First, he tripped over his own feet before he even got within ten metres of her," Peter took over the story. "Remember, Pinky?"

"I hate you even more," was Pinky's reply.

Perry grinned.

"Then he accidentally bumped into her and knocked her into the pool," giggled Peter.

"I'm going to kill you if you say another word," growled Pinky.

"Finally, when she got out the pool, he tried to say sorry and ended up accidentally kicking her in the leg."

"That's it!"

Peter let out a squawk as Pinky launched an attack. Perry and Terry were nearly killing themselves laughing. Then the attack got moved onto a different person.

"What are you attacking _me_ for?" Terry squealed.

"You started it!" Pinky shouted, but Perry could tell the Chihuahua was not as angry as he seemed.

Pinky then latched himself onto Peter's back, while the panda spun around the room, trying to throw the Chihuahua off. Terry jumped on top of them and made a pile of squirming agents.

Perry was incredibly close to joining in. After all, he hadn't had much fun with his best friends since the trip began. A part of him was feeling guilty, as he had been spending most of his free time with Priya instead of his friends. A different part of him felt jealous that he wasn't in their group.

After a moment of dithering, Perry grabbed a fistful of elastic bands from the desk in the corner and leapt onto Peter's bed. He flicked the first one at Pinky and the second at Peter. Both agents immediately declared war.

For the next hour, the four agents happily fought an elastic band war, all thoughts of the next day completely out of their minds.


	15. A Venomous Fright

The next morning at breakfast, Perry was alarmed to hear that a whole day of sparring awaited them.

"We're not going to be sparring with those robots, are we?" he asked Lyla, who had squeezed in between him and Peter.

"Oh, heavens no. We're still examining them to see why they went haywire."

"And do you have an answer?" Priya asked. She looked a little nervous, and Perry didn't know why.

"Jury's still out, I'm afraid," Lyla replied.

"So who are we going to be sparring against?" inquired Perry.

Lyla grinned. "Each other."

"Oh, joy," Perry said. "Priya gets to beat up by her boyfriend."

Priya flinched. Perry didn't know whether she was adverse to the word "boyfriend" or "beaten up". He hoped it wasn't the former.

"Excuse me," Priya said, getting up from the table. "I need to go to the toilet."

She left the room. Perry watched her go. "It's a shame she still hasn't gotten over the incident," Lyla commented, taking a bite of toast.

That swung Perry's attention back to his friend. "What incident?"

"The robots-and-chainsaws incident," Lyla answered, spearing her fried egg. "Poor Priya was training with one of the robots at the time. Left her quite traumatised, I can tell you that."

"Yeah, that's to be expected," Perry said absent-mindedly, again staring at the door through which Priya had gone. Some of the puzzle pieces were fitting together now.

…

"This is going to go well," Perry commented.

The activity hadn't actually started yet, but he had laughed at the look on Diana's face when she realised that she was the only one out of her, Rae, and Lewis who hadn't taken a turn with Seth.

Lyla and an instructor called Rob Rosenthal were taking the session. They spent a good few minutes fighting to show how it was done. While Perry and Priya were watching closely at the footwork and positions, Perry kept catching glimpses of the other members of the group out of the corner of his eye: it seemed that Seth and Lewis had stolen Rae's hairband and were throwing it to each other while Diana laughed at them. Perry was tempted to shout at them to pay attention but then he figured that he and Priya were watching. It wasn't going to affect him if these idiots didn't know what they were doing.

Eventually, Lyla pinned Rob down on the ground for three seconds, before letting him up. "Alright, guys," Lyla said, both of them panting. "We showed you a lot of moves there. Using acrobatics in a fight is great for gaining the upper hand but they also sap a lot of energy. Use them sparingly. Okay, so now I want you to choose one person in your pair to be A and one to be B."

"A," Priya said, pointing at Perry.

"B," Perry said at the exact same time, pointing at Priya.

"So for your first task, you're both going to fight. Partner A is going to try and use a backflip in their fight but partner B is going to try and attack so that partner A doesn't get a chance to. Everyone clear?"

Perry and Priya nodded. Apparently the rest of the group weren't listening because Rob set them off on the task while Lyla sternly talked to them.

Perry and Priya faced each other and adopted a fighting pose. "Don't hold back just because I'm your boyfriend," Perry grinned.

"You're going down," was Priya's response.

Apparently at breakfast, the word "boyfriend" hadn't been the thing to upset Priya after all.

Priya attacked. Perry did a backflip to dodge it. "That was easy," teased Perry.

Priya sighed. "Aww man. That was too easy for you. Let's try again."

For the next few minutes, they fought. Every time Perry thought he might be able to do a backflip to avoid an oncoming attack, Priya switched tactics and attacked in a different way. Perry mostly adopted the defence. While Priya jumped and leapt and launched attacks, Perry kept his feet firmly on the ground and just moved according to where Priya sent the attack from, blocking blows and kicks with his arms, hands, and even his tail once. In the distance, he could hear Lyla saying, "See what Perry's doing? He's not jumping around but he can still dodge all of Priya's attacks. I want you trying that."

The next time Priya attacked, Perry saw a flash of purple and the sharp point of her ankle barb. A moment later, he felt stinging pain on his arm. He stumbled backwards in alarm, clutching the red cut.

Priya began crying hysterically.

"Hey, whoa, whoa!"

Lyla came running. She took one look at Perry's arm and told Priya to calm down.

"I poisoned Perry!"

"No you didn't," Lyla said reassuringly. "Female platypuses' ankle barbs aren't venomous. Only the males' are. He'll have a cut there but there's no other harm done."

Priya sniffed. "Really?"

"Really," Perry said, going towards her. He showed her the cut. "See? You haven't poisoned me. It's okay."

Priya nodded. "Gosh, I was really worried I had seriously hurt you."

"How about I now attack you to make up for it?" Perry asked, grinning, before he leapt.

Priya barely reacted in time.

Five minutes later, both platypuses collapsed onto the floor, breathing heavily. "You do a good defence," Perry said. "But try not to move around as much, like I was doing."

"Honestly, I don't really care at this point, right now I'm just glad I didn't kill you."

Perry laughed. "Don't worry," he said. "Cut's already clearing up. It'll be fine."


	16. FALLing in Love

"Skydiving?" Perry repeated. He stared across the dinner table at Reuben. "Seriously?"

"Yeah," Reuben said, grinning. "I'm running it tomorrow as this Sunday's choice of activity. You get to jump as either a pair or a single."

Priya stared at Perry. "You look all excited," she commented.

"That's one of the only things I've never done," Perry explained. "It's on my bucket list."

He didn't add that the only other thing on his bucket list was _throw a birthday party for Heinz._

"Then, I'll come with you," Priya said. She saw the look on Perry's face. "Yes, I know I'm scared of heights, but you'll be with me, won't you? Besides, if I know I'm safe with a parachute, then it'll be fine."

"Okay, then." Perry looked at Reuben. "We'll both be there."

"Are you sure?" Perry was surprised to see the apprehensive look on Reuben's face. "I mean, the last time you did a Sunday activity, you ended up in hospital."

"That's different," Perry said dismissively. "I know a lot can go wrong with skydiving, but every part of it is controlled. It's most likely that nothing bad will happen."

Perry had no idea how wrong he was.

…

At breakfast the next day, Priya was having second thoughts. "Perry," she said hesitantly. "I'm really sorry, but-."

"It's fine that you don't want to do it," Perry interrupted. "I know you hate heights. I don't want you doing anything you're uncomfortable with."

Priya looked relived. "Thanks so much for understanding, Perry. I-I love you."

Perry felt his breath get taken away. "I love you too, Priy."

Priya beamed. "I'll be watching from the ground, boyfriend."

"See you later, girlfriend."

And that was how, two hours later, Perry found himself in a helicopter with Peter the Panda. "Thanks for coming with me," Perry said.

"No problem," Peter said, though he was looking a little pale. "I mean, I've never been a big fan of heights, but I love the extreme and you can't get much more extreme than jumping out of an helicopter with nothing but a big sheet of material to slow your fall."

"Shut up, Pete, you're making me regret my decision."

"I'm a little nervous," Peter confessed. "I've never done this before."

"Me neither," Perry said. "But if you're nervous, best to open your parachute early."

"Alright, we're over the drop zone!" called Reuben from the cockpit. "Time to go!"

"Oh sweet mother of everything that is good in the world…" muttered Perry as he and Peter jumped.

 _10,000 feet…_

Peter immediately began screaming. Perry tried to tune it out. It wasn't hard; Perry was immediately captivated by the view. Just like at the rock climbing, he could see the snowy fields and the towering mountains. He could also see COWCA HQ and even the rock climbing tower itself. The wind whistled through his fur. It was almost relaxing.

 _7500 feet…_

"Perry!"

Perry looked over at his best friend, who was tugging at his parachute string, trying to open the parachute but to no avail.

"The parachute's not opening!"

"No kidding!" Perry shouted back. He thought about testing his, but he thought it was best not to. "Take it off and let it go!"

"WHAT?" shrieked Peter. "But then I won't have a chance!"

"JUST DO IT!"

 _5000 feet…_

Peter must have heard the seriousness in Perry's tone because he took off his parachute pack and let it fall.

"Come near me!" As he talked, Perry pushed himself towards his friend, who was now falling without a parachute. They were almost halfway to the ground.

Perry and Peter linked hands. "Perry, I'm scared!"

 _2500 feet…_

Perry was reminded of the rock climbing incident, when Priya had panicked in much the same way as Peter was now. He thought for a moment, and then decided what he had to do. He unbuckled his own parachute pack and helped put it on Peter.

"Perry, no!" Peter shouted, horrified.

 _1000 feet…_

"Just hold on to me, yeah?" As Perry clutched tightly onto Peter's waist, he tried to calm his own sickening nerves. They were getting dangerously close to the ground. "Open the parachute when I say so."

Peter nodded hurriedly.

Perry watched the ground approach.

 _500 feet…_

"NOW-NOW-NOW!"

Peter pulled the string. Perry only had a split second to hope desperately that this parachute wasn't broken too before the piece of blue material billowed out behind them, slowing their fall. When they were about thirty feet off the ground, Perry lost his grip and fell. "Perry!" cried Peter.

Perry landed hard on the grass of the designated landing zone. Fortunately, he had managed not to break any bones. Unfortunately, he felt the shock of the landing break a couple of ribs, and his head and been thrown back when he landed, resulting in a minor head wound. For a few minutes, he lay on his back in the grass, too winded and in pain to move. Then Peter came running up to him, very worried. Perry hadn't seen him land.

"Oh my God, Perry!" Peter gasped. "T-there's blood…"

Perry hadn't realised. It was probably from his head injury. He looked weakly up at Peter and managed to slur, "Pr-ya."

As if on cue, the purple platypus burst onto the scene. "Oh my God! Are you okay?!"

Perry managed a nod.

"I-I-I saw you land bu-but I didn't think…I didn't know that…oh, Perry!" she finished.

Perry bent down next to Perry. "We need to get you to the hospital!"

…

"You really can't stay out of here, can you?" asked the doctor, a smile on her face. "Well, the good news is none of your injuries are too severe. You've broken two ribs and cracked three more but they should all heal in three to four weeks. Just don't strain yourself in that period. You also have a minor concussion which should clear up in the next few days. It may cause frequent headaches but it's not too severe. Just take some paracetamol as normal but if the headache doesn't clear up as quickly as a natural headache would, then come and find me, alright?"

Perry nodded.

"Okay, then. By the way, you missed the poll for the movie selection on tonight. They're showing _Doof Dynasty_."

Perry grinned. It didn't matter to him; it was one of his favourite movies. _Right next to…_

"Oh, your friend Priya came in while you were anaesthetised and told me to tell you something," the doctor added. "She said she pulled some strings. After _Doof Dynasty_ , you'll be allowed to watch another movie of your choosing with your friends. Priya said she chose _The Temple of Juatchadoon_ for you."

Perry grinned. _Yeah, right next to that. Good old Priya remembered what I told her my favourite movie was._

…

"That teal platypuses looks a lot like you," remarked Priya during the second movie.

"I know right," Perry said. "He even has the same name as me. Coincidental, right?"

Perry didn't let on that his owners, Phineas and Ferb, had directed both that movie and _Doof Dynasty_.

"I can't believe Isabella betrayed Ohio and Rhode Island like that," Priya commented later.

"But it was the only way to get her mother back," Pinky said. "Plus she's my favourite character and this is my favourite bit so shush."

Perry knew exactly why the character was Pinky's favourite: she looked exactly like Pinky's owner. She even had the same name.

Perry's personal favourite bit was the song _Don't Look Down_. He found himself singing along to it when it came up, and the same with _Perry in a Fez._

"I wish I had my own theme song," Terry said wistfully, shoving a fist full of popcorn into his mouth.

"Phineas and Ferb made me my own theme song," Perry said, not trying to boast. "Maybe they'll make one for you."

"Yeah, that'll happen. It doesn't matter. I'm not that song-worthy at all. Unlike you. My song would be like _He's Terry! Terry the Turtle!_ It's not as catchy."

"That's because you're imagining it in the same tune as mine," Perry pointed out. "Try thinking of a different tune."

"Shush!" hushed Pinky and Priya at the same time.

Wincing a little as he changed positon, Perry put his arm around Priya, who relaxed into his shoulder. Perry realised that Peter was being unusually silent. After Perry had been released from hospital, Peter had leapt at Perry and thanked him over and over again. Now, however, it seemed like he was engrossed in the movie.

"Ohio and Isabella are perfect for each other," Pinky sighed. "I ship them."

"What on Earth does that mean?" Priya asked with a laugh. "Last Sunday, Lyla said the crowd were "shipping" me and Perry. What does it mean?"

Perry caught sight of Peter and Pinky exchanging a grin. "Should we tell them?" Terry asked.

"Nah," Peter said. "Let them work it out for themselves."

"But seriously," Pinky said. "Ohio and Isabella are clearly meant for each other."

" _That's_ shipping," Terry said with a grin. "When you think two people make a cute couple. There are two basic stages of shipping. The _they-look-cute-together_ stage and the-."

"They need to get married," Pinky said, sounding rather annoyed. "They clearly love each other."

"That stage," Terry laughed.

They watched the end of the movie. As the credits began, Terry commented, "Have you noticed how we never saw the escape of the platypus who looks like Perry and the evil guy who looks like Perry's nemesis? Do you think they both died?"

"Most likely," Perry yawned.

"That's a shame," sighed Priya. "I liked those characters. Mostly the teal platypus," she added.

As she watched the credits roll, Perry stared at her, trying to work out if she was being flirtatious or not. He decided that she was—maybe a little. And he was surprised to find that he was okay with that.


	17. Working It Out

The next day, throughout the morning's running activities, Perry could only focus on figuring out why so many things were going wrong. It wasn't coincidence. First, there had been the incident that Perry and his friends hadn't even been there for: the rampant robots with chainsaws. Then there was the fire.

Next, the lost-in-the-woods incident. Perry had talked to Reuben after the skydiving episode; the instructor had told him that all the other groups had had a map of the forest, whereas Perry's group had had a map of elevation, i.e. how high the land was. Perry's group should have had normal map. Reuben put it down to a simple mix-up, but Perry knew that wasn't the case.

After that was the rope bridge incident. Perry had personally watched four other animals go over it without anything happening. He had heard a weird noise just before the rope snapped, but he had asked Priya afterwards if she had heard it but she said she hadn't. He had also talked to Monty, who had said much the same thing. However, it was way too coincidental that the rope snapped on the third pair to go across, which happened to be Perry and Priya.

Finally, there was the recent skydiving episode. Peter's parachute hadn't worked. Simple as that. But Reuben said he checked and double checked the parachutes before every drop. It made sense. So how did Peter's parachute fail?

For a while, Perry suspected Reuben. After all, he was the instructor at both the orienteering and the skydiving. But however hard he tried, he couldn't think of a motive. Besides, Reuben had been just as upset at the skydiving episode as Monty had been at the rope bridge incident.

At lunch, Perry ran a few theories by Priya while they sat outside on their own. While he was unable to figure out who the culprit was, perhaps he could figure out who the intended target was.

"There must be a connection," Perry said. "It's only logical."

"Logical?" Priya repeated.

"Yeah, think about it. Of all the incidents that have happened, nobody has died."

"It could be luck or skill."

"Sure. The incident in the woods was a mixture. The waterfall incident was also a mixture. The parachute thing with me and Peter was skill. But the fire?" Perry shook his head. "Fires can easily get out of control. And yet we know the fire was started in the library on the top floor, where many agents were at the time, and nobody died."

"So what connection could there be?" Priya asked.

Perry saw raw fear in her face. It also made him scared. "It can't be us," he said thoughtfully. "Me and my roommates, I mean. Because the incidents began before we came. Similarly, it can't be Lyla or Edie or Reuben or any of the other instructors because they've all been here for ages."

He paused. He had only just realised that he had automatically referred to Peter, Pinky, and Terry as "my roommates". Usually he called them "my best friends" or at the very least "my friends".

"So who could it be?" Priya's voice brought Perry out of his thoughts.

"My guess…"

Perry hated to admit it. He hated to say it. But it was the only logical course of action. This agent had been on the scene of all these accidents, except for two, and that was because of a change of plan.

"My guess is it's you."

"W-what?" Priya gasped. "M-me? Why me? Surely there are loads of other agents it could be?"

"Think about it. You told me ages ago that you were in the library just before the fire was started, right?"

"About half an hour before, yeah."

"Well, what if the implements were planted when you were in the library, with the intention of getting you? The culprit wouldn't have known that you were going to go to reception, then get the phone call, then come with us to the pool."

Priya grimaced. "That's a bit of a stretch, Perry."

"I know. But with the chainsaw-robot incident, Lyla told me that you were training with them at the time."

Priya flushed. "Yes, but-!"

"And then there was the rope bridge," Perry continued. "Did you notice how Diana and Rae went over it and nothing happened? Did you notice how, even though Lewis on his own was heavier than both of us combined, he and Seth went over it and nothing happened? Then as soon as we get to the middle of it, it snaps? That can't be coincidence, you have to admit. Plus, there's the noise I heard just before we fell."

"Perry, I didn't hear anything."

"I know, I know. But I also know what I heard. Then there's the parachute incident."

"Yeah, and surely that's the problem with your theory," Priya said. "I wasn't even there."

"But you were meant to be."

Priya gaped.

"Remember?" Perry thought back. "We said at dinner that we were going to go together, but then you pulled out at breakfast—which I don't blame you for—and I invited Pete instead. It was a last minute change, and the culprit wouldn't have had time to fix it. It's the same with the race in the woods. You were meant to be on our team but you left to let Peter be on our team. Which was nice of you. But you were meant to be on our team."

Priya stared at the ground, her hands pressed to the side of her head. "So you're saying that someone's trying to kill me?"

"It's most probable, yes."

He was about to say more when he realised the effect his words were having on Priya. "Are you okay?"

"No I'm not okay!" Priya shouted in his face, which surprised him. "You've just told me that someone's trying to kill me! Are you expecting me to take that calmly?"

"Look, I'm sorry," Perry said. "I didn't mean to scare you. I just…I care a lot about you and I don't want you to get hurt."

Priya sighed. "I'm sorry too. It's just that…I wanted to come on this retreat because I thought I'd finally be safe from the dangers of OWCA, at least for a month. But now it seems like the danger just followed me here."

Perry took her into a hug. "It's alright," he reassured her. "Anybody trying to harm you will have to go through me first."


	18. The Best Day Ever

The rest of the week passed without incident. Perry and Priya stuck together all the time. They even got permission from Gwen, Captain Colophon's intern, for Priya to sleep in Perry's room for the week. They explained the situation and she agreed not to tell anybody else unless it could be proven that Priya was being targeted.

Pretty soon, Sunday had rolled around again. Perry and Priya agreed to play Capture the Flag with the rest of Perry's friends, rather reluctantly, but nothing went wrong. In fact, both platypuses were able to forget about their troubles for a couple of hours in the midst of the fun game.

Afterwards, malicious intent was the last thing on anybody's mind with the anticipation of the carnival visit. Apparently, the carnival was exclusively open to the agents who were on COWCA's retreat.

When they arrived, Perry was filled with wonder. It was so colourful. Rides and stalls were everywhere, and wherever Perry looked, people were having a good time. Best of all, every agent was given three tokens each: one for something to eat, and two for souvenirs at the gift shop. The rides and stalls were free.

Priya immediately pulled Perry towards a Ferris Wheel standing tall in the corner of the park. As the two platypuses sat down in the Ferris Wheel car, Perry felt the lyrics to one of the songs that he and Priya had sung at the disco a fortnight ago come into his head.

 _You know we're going nowhere fast and we got no destination…_

Priya leaned her head on Perry's shoulder as they began moving up in the open car.

 _Nothing scheduled, got no chores to do…_

Priya whispered, "It's beautiful," as the whole carnival came into view.

 _The sun is up, the wind is warm, and we're clear of all obligations…_

Perry sighed happily as the car reached the top and stopped.

 _We're taking the scenic route, just enjoy the view._

Perry put his right arm around Priya and the two platypuses watched the sunset.

 _Ooh-ooh-ooh. There's no-one that I'd rather go nowhere with than you…_

Perry's other hand linked fingers with Priya's right hand.

 _We don't need a compass, we don't need a guiding star…_

"I'm so happy we're up here together," Perry said.

 _We don't need a GPS to tell us where we are…_

"Me too," agreed Priya.

' _Cause we know where we are._

"Priya?" Perry said hesitantly.

Priya turned away from where she was staring down at the carnival below them and looked at him. "Yes, Perry?"

"I…um…I wanted to tell you something."

"Okay." Priya settled in her seat.

"Remember that time when we did archery and you had a rant about your flaws?"

Priya grimaced. "I've been trying to forget, Perry. But yes, I do remember."

"You said your fear of heights pulls you back," Perry remembered. "You said that you give up easily, you sometimes turn your back on people, and you said that your emotions sometimes control you."

"Why are you reminding me of that, Perry?" Priya asked, looking uncomfortable.

"I just want you to know that no matter what, I will always love you. You hate your flaws, but I don't see them as flaws. I see them as things that make you the one I love. They make you: _you._ I love everything about you, from the way you laugh to the fact that you are scared of heights. Nobody's perfect, not even me."

Priya gave a laugh at that.

"But you're perfect to me," Perry continued. "And I would like nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you. So here's the question…" Perry paused, working up the nerve. "W-will you be my mate for life?"

Priya didn't hesitate. Tears sprang into her eyes and she managed, "Of course I will, Perry. I love you so much."

The two platypuses nuzzled each other. Perry felt even more complete than he had when they first kissed, something he hadn't thought possible.

At that moment, the Ferris Wheel began moving again. Perry hadn't realised that it had stayed still for so long. When they reached the bottom, Perry saw Pinky standing by the operator's booth, a massive Cheshire Cat-type grin on his face.

"Sooooooo?" he said. "Are you mates now?"

Priya beamed. "Yes, yes we are."

Pinky squealed excitedly.

Perry, on the other hand, looked suspiciously at his best friend. "How much did you bribe the operator to make sure we were sitting at the top for that long?"

Pinky's grin did not waver. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Uh huh," Perry said, not believing him. "So where're the others?"

"Terry went on that massive rollercoaster," Pinky replied, pointing. "And Peter went to get something to eat."

"We _just_ had supper," said Perry, exasperated.

"That panda could eat all the hot dogs in the world when he's hungry," Pinky said.

Later, Perry decided he was going to try and win Priya a stuffed teddy bear from a rifle shooting stall. Needless to say, the two platypuses were joined by "Theodore" for the rest of the evening.

Perry, Priya, Pinky, Peter, and Terry all stuck together for most of the evening. Because of their different interests in rides, there was always at least one of them who didn't want to go on a ride that the others did. Peter and Terry liked the extreme rides; Terry, Perry, and Priya liked the fast-ish rides; Pinky, Perry, and Priya liked the slower rides; and all of them liked the game stalls.

It was the most fun Perry had ever had in his life. And when the five agents staggered back to their room, they were laughing and chatting about the day.

Perry and Priya got into their bed. Terry had graciously given up his bed, which was a bit bigger than Perry's old one, so that both platypuses would have enough room. Not that it mattered to Perry, as long as he was with his girlfriend…no, _mate._

"What was your favourite ride, Perry?" Pinky asked after a few minutes.

"The Ferris Wheel," Perry answered instantly.

"Of course it was," scoffed Peter. "Mine was the drop tower."

"Man, those things are _scary_ ," Priya remarked. "You don't know when it's going to drop you."

"But that's the whole point, Priya," Terry argued. "The thrill of not knowing. After all, there's no surprise in life if you know where you're going."

"That's deep," Priya laughed. "But you have to admit, the Cheese Factory rollercoaster was fun."

"It was tame," yawned Terry.

"It was fun for people who don't like big rollercoasters," Priya amended.

Perry couldn't stop himself from grinning. The easy way Priya was chatting with his friends and vice versa made him happy that Priya had been made an automatic part of their group.

"Why do people even like fast rollercoasters?" Pinky asked.

"'Cause every day's a brand new day," Terry grinned. "You gotta carpe diem."

"Stop quoting Phineas and Ferb songs," Pinky said.

"Never," Terry replied.

Peter tossed a pillow at Terry.

"Oh don't start this again!" Pinky hid his head under the covers. "Goodnight, you guys."

"'Night," chorused everyone else.

Perry and Priya snuggled down under the warm blanket. Subconsciously, they both put their arms around each other. "Goodnight Perry. Love you."

"Love you too, Priy," Perry said sleepily back. "Goodnight."


	19. The Climax

When Perry woke up, the room was still dark. He peered out the window and saw it was still dark outside. The luminous red numbers on the clock said _04:12. Strange,_ thought Perry. He'd never woken up before the alarm before.

He thought nothing of it at first until he snuggled down under the blankets again and realised something important…

Priya was gone.

Perry got out of bed and made double sure that Priya was not in the room. As he did, he found a piece of paper on the desk, something that had not been there before. He picked up his phone and used the light on it to read what was on the piece of paper.

 _I hold all the answers, yet I am abstract, I show you the view, while you learn something from me._

 _If you can figure out where your girlfriend is using these clues, go there. Bring no-one and nothing except a torch with you or she dies._

Perry's heart went cold and began beating twice as fast. Someone had Priya, and he had to figure out where.

Perry sat down to try and calm himself. He couldn't think when he was worked up. He decided to tackle the easiest part first: abstract. It couldn't mean an abstract noun, because abstract nouns couldn't be a thing that he could go to. Maybe it meant it was a place? _Yeah, that must be it. It means it's a place, not a thing._ The part about showing the view—maybe that meant it was high up? Holding all the answers and learning something…books? Books…library!

 _The library on the top floor of COWCA!_ Perry realised.

Perry quickly scribbled a note telling his friends where he was going, and left his phone beside that, with an alarm that was set to go off in half an hour. It was a hollow hope, since all three of his best friends had a bad track record in waking up to alarms, but it was the best Perry had. After doing this, he ran out of his room. A torch had been left by the door, rather worryingly. That told Perry that somebody had planned all this.

He ran as fast as he could. For one of the activities, he had gone to the top floor with his group—Perry couldn't remember exactly what that activity was now—so he knew the way up to the top floor.

Perry opened the double doors to the library and ducked under the yellow police tape. It was completely dark. Perry shone his torch around the place, catching blackened books in the beam. It spooked him, he had to admit; seeing the fire-damaged books and furnishings.

Just before he got to the librarian's desk, he heard Priya's voice scream his name. He whirled round but he was too slow. A cage dropped on his head and lifted him up. Perry cursed under his breath.

The lights turned on. A man strode towards the cage. He looked about Doof's age, with black hair. He was wearing all black, including a black hoodie with the hood up, though Perry could still see his face.

"Who are you?" demanded Perry.

"Allow me to introduce myself." The figure bowed. "You can call me Thanatos. It means death."

"I know what Thanatos means," Perry growled. "Where's Priya?"

"Over there."

Thanatos pointed into a corner. Perry looked and saw Priya in a similar cage to him, clutching the bars. "Are you okay?" Perry called to her.

She nodded nervously.

Perry turned back to Thanatos. "Let me guess: you're the one who orchestrated all the incidents?"

Thanatos clapped once. "Right in one."

"But how?"

"You work it out. Let's start with the fire."

Perry thought for a moment. "Well, gasoline is the most popular fuel for fire, and I can smell it here. So I'm guessing that's how you started the fire. Tell me if I'm right."

"You are indeed correct," Thanatos said with a dramatic flourish. "But unfortunately my plan counted on Priya staying in the library for just a little longer." He addressed Priya. "If I may ask, why did you go to the reception?"

"You may not ask," Priya snapped, folding her arms.

"Priya, it'll help us solve the mystery," Perry said.

Priya sighed. "For you, and only for you, Perry. I went to reception because I was trying to find the librarian so I could check out a book. Someone said she might be in reception but the receptionist asked me if I could deliver a message. So I did."

"What about the robots incident?" Perry asked.

"I have a degree in electrical engineering," Thanatos replied airily, with a bored wave of his hand. "Hacking those robots was child's play."

"So was switching the maps, I presume?" said Perry.

"Ah, the orienteering. My perhaps overly-dramatic attempt to get you lost in the woods. As for the maps, well, actually, I had some help with that," Thanatos said. "Turns out Reuben will do anything when threatened with his fiancée."

Perry's heart leapt into his throat. "You blackmailed Reuben?"

"Yep," Thanatos replied, looking really pleased with himself. "His fiancée's called Maria Wilkins, a florist in Danville. Kidnapping her was easy. The poor kid's been on my side since day one."

"Keeping his fiancée hostage doesn't qualify for being on your side!" Priya shouted angrily from her cage. "It's awful!"

"Nobody asked you," Thanatos said, though his tone was still as light as ever. "Anyway, it was the same with the parachutes. Again, there was a change of plan and I failed to get Priya. That was the last straw."

"And the rope bridge?" Perry asked, though he had already worked it out. "That sound I heard…it was an arrow, I'm guessing?"

Thanatos actually squealed. "Oh, you are good! Indeed, 'twas an arrow that pierced the rope and sent you lovers into the river. And did you notice the convenient thorny vine that was attached to a heavy rock? That was me, too! You don't have luck _that_ bad."

"So why?" Perry demanded. "Why go through all this to get Priya?"

"Well," Thanatos began, and for once Perry saw real emotion on his face. "That's easy. Five years ago, Priya the Platypus killed my mother."

Priya made a strangled squawking noise in the back of her throat. "I didn't kill anyone!" she protested.

"Let me tell you a story. Of a little boy whose mother was killed by a disintegration ray right in front of his eyes. Fired from the top of a building where a secret agent platypus was messing with a disintegration machine."

Priya gasped. "N-no…five years ago…the –erator fired…" She was sweating profusely. "Who told you that I was the one who fired it?"

"A short scientist in a white coat."

"Doctor Diminutive," Priya said, shaking her head. "You can't believe anything he says!"

"He swore on his life," Thanatos snapped, though even he was looking a little uncertain now.

"He's a villain!" Priya countered desperately. "He lies! I know you won't believe me because you think I did it but I was there! He fired the machine and I destroyed it to stop him from using it!"

"What a great job you did of it," Thanatos said sarcastically.

"I-!" Priya began furiously.

"Enough, you lying monotreme!"

"She's not lying!" Perry shouted, clutching the bars so tightly that his knuckles turned pale. "Are you going to murder her for telling the truth?"

"No," replied Thanatos, which was not what either platypus was expecting. "I'm not going to kill her. I'm going to kill _you_ in front of her."

Perry's heart went cold. Thanatos took one step towards Perry and Priya went crazy.

"No!" she screamed. "Leave him alone!"

"I just stepped towards him," Thanatos complained. "Honestly, if you're going to be like this…you know what? Never mind."

He produced a scary-looking knife. Perry began sweating in terror as he pressed himself against the back of the cage. Priya attacked her own cage, biting and pulling at the bars. Thanatos bent down next to Perry's cage and suddenly stuck the knife through. The point pierced Perry's shoulder. Perry let out a cry of pain and attempted to phase through the bars at the back of the cage.

"PERRY!" screamed Priya.

All of a sudden, Thanatos flew backwards and hit the wall. Something orange coloured landed in front of Perry's cage and looked back at him. "Next time you set an alarm," Terry said with a grin. "Don't pick the tune _My Name is Doof._ "

Perry nearly fainted in relief. "Where're Peter and Pinky?"

"Still sleeping," Terry replied. "They didn't wake up."

"Remind me to thank you profusely when this is over," Perry said. "And you can rub it in the others' faces."

Thanatos got to his feet, looking very annoyed. "You stupid tortoise!" he snapped.

"Seriously?" Terry said. "Of all the trash talk you could have gone with here, you choose _that?"_

Thanatos lunged. Terry dodged and hit the release switch for both cages, which rose up, allowing the two platypuses to join the fight, though Perry's movements were limited because of his injury.

The fight was short. Thanatos, one guy, was no match for three highly-trained animal agents, despite one injured one. Perry picked up his dropped knife and pointed it at Thanatos. He turned his head slightly towards Terry, though he didn't keep his eyes off his enemy. "You got my phone?"

"Yeah," replied Terry.

"Call Lyla," Perry ordered his friend. "Or Edie. Anyone who can arrest this guy."

Terry nodded and started for the exit. But the word "arrest" must have rattled Thanatos because he suddenly leapt up, jumped over Perry's head, and kicked Terry into the wall. The orange turtle was instantly knocked out. Thanatos turned to face Perry, but the teal platypus had had enough. He felt pure anger surging through his blood. "That's the last straw," he said slowly. "You endangered Peter's life with the damaged parachute, your schemes led to Pinky nearly drowning twice, you dropped us in the river, and now you hurt Terry. You don't get to leave here with all your limbs."

"Perry…!" Priya said in alarm.

But Perry had already leapt. This surprised Thanatos. As soon as the platypus's foot hit Thanatos's jaw, he felt it break. He launched an attack and didn't stop for a good minute of pummelling, before Priya managed to haul him off. "Perry, that's enough!"

Perry stared down at the human, bleeding. "Watch him," he said. "And call someone."

Priya took the phone from Perry, while the teal platypus checked Terry. The orange turtle was breathing but unconscious. Perry concernedly sat by Terry until Lyla arrived to take Thanatos away. Even though the man responsible for targeting Priya had been caught, Perry felt scared of himself for what he had almost done.


	20. Departure

Perry pulled uncomfortably at the black bowtie. "Do I have to wear this?" he complained. "It's itchy."

"It's smart," Priya said from the bathroom.

"Besides, bowties are cool," grinned Peter, who was also wearing a bowtie.

"You have to stop watching so much TV, Pete," Pinky said, shaking his head.

Perry knew that both Pinky and Peter felt really bad about not coming to help him and Priya that night. Terry hadn't rubbed it in their faces after all, seeing how upset they were.

Priya stepped out the bathroom. She was wearing a fancy sapphire-blue dress that stopped just before it brushed the floor. Perry couldn't stop himself from staring in awe at her. "Does this look okay?"

"Okay doesn't even begin to describe it," Perry said.

Priya smiled bashfully.

"I hate bowties," Terry complained from the corner of the room. The orange turtle was adjusting the bowtie while looking in the mirror. "I am never wearing a bowtie again."

"Stop being so melodramatic," Peter grinned.

"I don't see what the fuss is about," stated Pinky. "Why do we need to wear these?"

"The awards evening is fairly prestigious," Priya replied. "We all need to look our best."

…

Perry came down off the stage, a golden trophy in his hands.

"I knew you'd win that one," Priya whispered as he slipped back into his seat. "You're the best at archery."

"And now," said Captain Colophon, who had actually shown up to give out the awards. "It's time for the winner of the race in the woods. The winning group is Poppy the Cat's group!"

Perry watched the winning group climb onstage. He turned to whisper something to Priya but the purple platypus was not there. It was only when he turned back to the stage and saw Florey the Flying Squirrel that he realised. When Priya sat back down, holding a golden trophy, Perry stared at her. "You kinda forgot to mention that your group won the race."

Priya grinned sheepishly. "Kinda slipped my mind."

Later, Terry won the prize for Fastest 100 Metre Swim.

"I think Terry might be a faster swimmer than even you," Priya whispered to Perry.

"I'll have to rectify that at some point," Perry grinned.

Perry ended up also winning the Fastest Rock-Wall Climb award. He was especially proud of that. Perry and Priya together won the prize for Longest Spar, which was a surprise for both platypuses.

Later, Perry's whole group won a prize for the Capture the Flag game, which they had won at the time. All of them got a medium sized trophy.

Terry only won the one individual award and Pinky and Peter didn't win anything individually, but that was apparently okay with them.

After the awards presentation, everyone headed upstairs to pack. Since Priya had moved all her stuff to Perry's room, they were all packing together.

Well, almost packing.

Peter threw everything in his suitcase and then lay on his bed. Pinky and Terry took a little longer to throw everything in, before they did the same. Perry and Priya, on the other hand, both liked suitcases neatly packed, so it was half an hour before they finished. Then they sat back on Perry's bed, holding hands.

"So this Thanatos guy," Pinky began. "Was that his real name?"

Priya shook her head. "We found out afterwards. His real name is Harry Foster. His mother's name was Lily Foster. They were both living in Danville five years ago. I guess they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Priya's voice shook as she finished talking. Perry squeezed her hand reassuringly. "Let's not talk about that," he said. "So what was your favourite part of the retreat, guys?"

Just like at the beginning of the retreat, Peter was the first to answer: "Definitely not the skydiving."

That made everyone laugh. "I guess it was the food."

"Seriously?" Pinky asked.

"No, not really. My favourite part of the retreat by far was hanging out with you lot."

"Aww," grinned Terry. "Whereas mine was something simpler, like the game of Capture the Flag."

"Mine was the carnival," Priya said with a glance at Perry, who suspected he knew why.

"I liked the disco," Perry said. "That was fun."

"Well, we wouldn't know, would we?"

Peter's remark made everyone laugh again.

"No, that's true," Perry said. "The whole retreat was a lot of fun. But frankly, I'm glad it's over. At least in OWCA, we know exactly what dangers we're facing. But here…it was scary because the incidents seemed to be random and-I know this was a one-off thing," he added as his friends showed signs of interrupting. "But you can't tell me you guys weren't worried for yourselves too."

"I wasn't worried for myself," Pinky said.

"Me neither," chorused Terry and Peter.

Perry rolled his eyes. "Thanks, guys."

"I said I wasn't worried for _myself_ ," Pinky said. "I'm pretty sure I speak for all of us when I say that we were worried for you."

"Me?" Perry repeated, surprised.

"Yeah," replied Peter, now serious. "We personally thought that whoever was orchestrating the incidents was targeting you."

"Me?" Perry said again.

"Yeah, I mean, you were at the scene of all the incidents. Apart from the fire and the robots thing," Pinky added. "We talked amongst ourselves and decided you must have been the target."

"Wait, so let me get this straight…" Perry was trying to work things out in his head. "You guys discussed the incidents when I wasn't around?"

"When you _and_ Priya weren't around, actually," corrected Terry. "You spent a lot of time together over the last three weeks."

Perry felt a little embarrassed.

"Anyway, let bygones be bygones," Pinky said. "So what was your least favourite part of the retreat?"

"The race in the woods," Perry replied immediately.

Everyone made noises of agreement.

"I feel embarrassed about that," Peter admitted sheepishly. "I'm just glad I don't remember what I was saying when I was delusional."

"I nearly drowned again," Pinky contributed.

"And I got a fever," added Terry.

"And I got thorns wrapped around my leg," Perry finished, with a look at his leg. The cuts had almost completely healed, leaving only a couple of practically-invisible scars.

"Although the skydiving incident came close," Peter said. "That was incredibly scary."

"My least favourite was the rock climbing," Priya said. "If we're excluding what happened on Monday morning."

Knowing she was referring to the Thanatos incident, Perry nodded. "We are excluding that," he said.

At that moment, the chimes signifying the end of curfew rang. Everybody in the room took that as their cue to settle down to go to sleep.

…

The next morning, the minibus was waiting for Perry and his friends. Carl helped them get their luggage into the bus. "I got your message, Agent P," he said. "Agent Priya can come home on the bus with us."

Perry felt happy. He tipped his fedora to the intern and climbed on the bus with Priya. The rest of his friends followed. Priya put the big-teddy-bear Theodore on the seat behind them.

Just like the trip there, Terry listened to music and read a book while Pinky and Peter had a chat. Perry still had the magazines but he didn't need to look at them.

He wasn't alone anymore.


End file.
